


of fluff and foxgloves

by medchan



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bourdon, Bumble - Freeform, Bumblebee - Freeform, Foxglove, Jiao - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-25 11:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 31,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12530056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/medchan/pseuds/medchan
Summary: Before Ladybug and Chat Noir, there were two very different heroes. Except, they went by the term 'vigilante' and they were not what you'd expect at all. Tom and Sabine have changed much over the years but they have never forgotten about how they met, their kwamis, or the past that connects them so clearly to the future now laid out for their daughter.Or, in other words, Marinette makes a mistake, there's a reveal, and then there's a bunch more reveals. How's she supposed to handle knowing her parents used to be superheroes?!





	1. Prologue: The Reveal

It started with a reveal, of all things. Marinette hadn’t meant for this to happen. Of all the people she contemplating telling, honestly, her parents had been very low on the list. She convinced herself it was because she didn’t want them to worry. That was it, there wasn’t any other reason. She told herself it was because they’d be in danger, knowing. What if they did something reckless, like try to stop her or run into a battle after her? She repeated the mantra in her head, _it was for the best_ , over and over again, until she had convinced herself it was true. Darting into an alleyway that was a bit too familiar to de-transform and give Tikki a minute to rest, to recharge, was instinctive. Facing her father, taking out the trash behind their bakery, right after she changed back was gut wrenchingly new. She stared at him with wide eyes and his eyes widened slightly as well. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. There was a loud crash, the sound of an akuma wrecking havoc and she winced. As nerve wracking as this was, she didn’t have time to deal with this _now._

She told herself that it could wait. She convinced herself that it was for the best. Her parents would understand. She had to save Paris, after all! She ran, darting out of the alleyway even as she waited for Tikki to recharge. The Kwami had handled the sudden reveal much better, waving at her father (although Marinette hadn’t seen her awkward smile or heard her questioning meow) before darting into her purse. But right now, Marinette couldn’t focus on any of that. She didn’t have time to wrap her head around the implications of someone knowing, much less her parents, her family. She had a partner to meet back up with, a city to save, and a super villain to thwart.

She was a little off during the fight, something the akuma tried to take advantage of and that Chat Noir most definitely noticed. She couldn’t possibly help that, though. She was a scattered mess after the battle, barely bumping her fist against Chat Noir’s and giving him a nervous smile, before darting off. She shouted over her shoulder, to his concerned shout if she was okay, that she had to go take care of something. Her stomach twisted in worry, bile climbing to the back of her throat, burning. Her eyes watered with unshed tears, her heart pounding. She landed on her balcony, and without a second thought, rushed into her room. She shouted _**spots off**_ , de-transforming before she could even recognize the danger of it. In her room, seated on her bed, was her mother with a soft smile, and her father stood by her side, hand on her shoulder. His eyes were warm and understanding. Marinette choked on the emotions, the panic, threatening to overwhelm her. In that moment, she knew the truth; more than anything, she didn’t want her parents to be disappointed in her, for not telling them, for not sharing this important secret.

“I’m sorry! I can explain— I—” The words burst out of Marinette, tears already streaming down her cheeks. Tikki darted away, looking nervously between her Chosen and her family.

Sabine merely stood up and took a few steps forward, holding out her arms in an invitation. She didn’t say a word, understanding without words what her daughter needed most right now. With a choked sob, Marinette rushed forward and practically tackled her mom in a hug. She sobbed into her chest, clinging to her. It was finally catching up to her; not just all the lies, but everything she held up so well. She was still, at the end of the day, a teenager, someone caught between childhood and adulthood. She was really too young to be having to carry this burden alone. It was finally catching up to her, the real danger of the situation, the fact that if she lost, if something happened to her, it wouldn’t be just _her_ who would be effected. Her family would lose her, would lose their whole world. There is nothing more painful in this world than parents having to bury their children.

Sabine held her, resting her head on Marinette’s, letting her daughter calm herself naturally. It took her a while to calm down, for her sobs to subside into hiccups. Tikki only lasted a minute before she also joined in, cuddling and hugging Marinette as best as she could. She didn’t like seeing her Chosen like this, didn’t like her feeling so upset. They could tackle the problem of her parents knowing later. For now, she just wanted her to feel better. Once she was down to just to occasional shudder, Sabine deemed her ready enough to talk. She pulled back slightly, smiling down at her little girl, giving her time to compose herself just a little more. Marinette awkwardly wiped the tear trails that had dried on her cheeks with one hand, unwilling to release her death grip on her mother's shirt with the other. She felt her father's hand on her back, still stroking soothing circles, and he leaned down to give her another kiss on the head.

"There. That's better. Do you want to talk about it?" Sabine finally spoke, reaching up to stroke her daughter's hair on either side of her face, smoothing it down with practiced ease.

Marinette shook her head and bit her lip, keeping the traitorous tears at bay. She couldn't break down and cry, not again. "Are you… are you mad at me?" She hesitated a guess.

"Mad? Why would we be mad at you?" Tom replied, sounding genuinely confused.

Sabine just smiled and shook her head lightly. "Oh no, we're not mad at you."

In an even smaller, weaker voice, doing her best not to curl in on herself, Marinette feebled asked again, "Then… are you disappointed in me?"

"No, mon cher, we're very proud of you. You've been doing an excellent job as Ladybug and it's really been boosting your confidence." Sabine replied warmly, smoothing her hair again.

Marinette sighed and took comfort in the gesture—only to stiffen suddenly. "Wait. You knew?!" She sequeaked out. "This whole time, _you knew_?!"

Tom chuckled at that. "Kind of hard not to know, really. You are our daughter, after all."

Marinette groaned, scrubbing a hand over her face. She still felt kind of grimy from all that crying but everything could wait until this conversation was over. "How long have you known?"

Her parents shared a look, one she caught the tail end as she looked up, surprised by the silence. Sabine turned back to her, still smiling. "Since day one."

"That long??" Marinette groaned again. "I'm so sorry, Tikki…"

"Tikki? Is that the name of your kwami?" Tom asked excitedly? Once Marinette had calmed down, the little bug kwami had darted away, leaving them so they could have this moment in private.

Marinette nodded and sighed. "So how did you know? What gave me away?" She wracked her brain, trying to find some correlating evidence somewhere in her head, something she'd done that was extra suspicious that first day, but she was coming up blank. She hazarded a guess anyway. "Is this because of all those little talent shows I put on when I was young?" Did her vanity due her in at the end? "Because I used to play dress up for you guys all the time?"

Sabine and Tom shared another knowing look, one Marinette felt she should understand but was just at a loss to grasp. Why did they keep looking at each other that way? The same way… the same way she and Chat shared a look, when they were formulating an answer. Her eyes narrowed. Thanks, subconscious, but she and Chat were _nothing_ like a married couple! She huffed—and then her brain caught up to the situation. "Wait. How do you know about kwamis?!"

Tom and Sabine both chuckled as Marinette looked wildly back and forth between her parents. What was going on?! Her panic was back at full force and she really couldn't think, couldn't puzzle things together, with her brain a frazzled mess like this. Tikki darted out, appearing before both of them, also quite curious about this turn of events. Tom reached out to pet her head lightly.

"Well, my kwami wasn't a ladybug but she was quite special. Do you happen to know Pollen?"

Tikki beamed at him, clearly pleased. "Pollen was your kwami? I see where Marinette gets her creativity from!"

"Pollen? Kwami?? You were a superhero?!" Marinette squeaked, turning to stare at her father with large eyes. She rounded on her mother, hand coming up to gesture in her awkward, panic induced state. "You knew?!"

Sabine showed a secret smile, grinning slyly. "Well, of course, dear. Who do you think taught him how to do it right?"

Tom laughed at the good natured ribbing. "I happen to think Bourdon was doing quite well for himself before Jiǎo showed up. Although, I certainly didn't mind the company."

"B-Bourdon? Jiǎo?! You're, you're both _superheroes_? Former? Curent?!" Marinette didn't know what to make of these sudden reveals. She thought her being found out as a superhero would be the big news of the day! Instead, her head was now reeling from the idea of her parents having a secret life she knew nothing about. Parents were supposed to be grounded figures, always there, in the background. That they had lives of their own, that they had secrets, never really occurred to her before now. Oh sure, she knew they liked going out dancing, that they enjoyed spending their anniversary together, that they were still in love after all this time and worked hard to make sure their marriage worked but that was very different from finding out they knew and understood and used to have superhero powers. What was her life coming to?!

"What— what even— _how_!?"

The two of them shared another look, another set of secretive smiles, and now Marinette knew what her brain had been trying to tell her earlier. Her parents had the same easy partnership that she had with Chat, just, they continued that partnership outside of the masks, as well.

"We are not current superheroes, no." Sabine began slowly, clearly feeling her way out. Deciding how much to tell Marinette, how much to share with her excitable daughter.

"And even when we were in the mask, we weren't exactly superheroes. We weren't fighting against a super villain, like you and Chat Noir." Tom supplied easily. "We were more like vigilantes, fighting crime, righting wrongs, helping achieve justice. Just… outside what the law was capable of handling or whenever we were near and happened on a crime."

"We weren't beloved, like you and Chat Noir, either." Sabine admitted.

"And our journey began in Shanghai, not Paris."

Marinette's eyes blew wide. That she was not expecting. "You two met in Shanghai…" She knew that much, that her parents's relationship didn't begin here in Paris, but in China. She never guessed that their might be some unwritten chapter to it, however.

Tom and Sabine nodded, exchanging a fond look. "I traveled there in pursuit of learning about new desserts." Her father began slowly, a fond look of recollection on his face. "It was the last stop of a long journey."

But that, he decides, is a story for another time. He doesn't want to overwhelm his daughter with the details of backpacking across Euroasia. "We met in Shanghai. By the time we met, I had already received Pollen and become a-a vigilante." He'd never considered himself a hero and he was still a humble man. He didn't have it in him to brag about his past exploits. "I was smitten by her kindness and she fell in love with my long hair."

"You— you had long hair?" Marinette squeaked out, trying to picture her father as he was in his youth. He chuckled, realizing he must seem so different to her. "I was a little slimmer, a bit more muscularly defined back then, and I usually wore it in a messy ponytail or bun." At her blank expression, he tried a reference might help. "Think a bit like Shang from Mulan, instead of Po."

Marinette couldn't help it. She snorted, covered her mouth but couldn't hide the giggles that mental image brought. She reached around to hug her father. "Papa!" She leaned into the hug, giving him all her love. "Po was my favorite anyway. Right after Mulan and Cricket."

"Mushu wasn't that terrible, either." Sabine added, patting her daughter's shoulder.

Marinette smiled and turned to her mother, giving her a hug as well. "Mushu was great, Maman." She looked up into Sabine's face. "So where do you come into this story?"

"Oh, like your father said. I was smitten with his hair. We met a couple of weeks after that as superheroes. It was rather exciting for me. I was Jiǎo and your father went by the English name of Bumble for a while. Bourdon was too French, too likely to stand out in China. Although, I was quite fond of Bourdon."

Bumblebee. Her father had been Bumblebee.

"Jiǎo?" Marinette asked timidly.

Her mother gave her a sly smile. "It means cunning in Chinese. Sly, crafty."

"Sly. Crafty. Cunning…" Marinette repeated, trying to picture an animal that suited all of these traits. She knew her mother was giving her a hint, letting her puzzle out the pieces for herself. "Rusé?" She repeated again in her native language. "Foxy. Fox. Fox! You were a fox superhero?"

Sabine beamed at her, clearly proud. "Yes, I was a fox superhero. My Kwami was named Trixx. She was adorable and very wise, if a bit prone to pranks and jokes."

"Wow. That's… wow." Marinette felt breathless.

Tom patted her on her back, deciding now was a good time to end the sharing session. "I'm going to go back downstairs, now that you've calmed down. Need to make sure the bakery is ready for customers."

They'd temporarily closed, to give Marinette some time to panic, calm down, and give explanations. After an hour and a half, though, he was really stretching it. This was their livihood, after all. He left Sabine to keep their daughter from falling too much to pieces. Marinette watched her Papa walk away numbly, not sure what to think or feel about all this. It was still a lot to process. Not only had she gotten caught, not only did her parents know about her secret identity as Ladybug, they had always known. They had known all along and— and— they knew because _they themselves were superheroes_.

What was she supposed to do with all this?

_What was she supposed to do with this information?_

She looked blankly at Sabine, who chuckled and lightly patted her cheek. Her mother always did seem to know when to use affection to snap her daughter out of a stupor. "Don't think too hard about it, mon cher. Take your time, slowly puzzle it out. We'll be here any time you have any questions."

Marinette nodded, still feeling numb inside, but managed a smile she hoped was reassuring for her mother. Sabine smiled back, her smile doing much more to reassure her daughter. She patted her hand then stood. Marinette couldn't even remember when they'd ended up sitting on her bed. With all the reveals going on today, it only made sense, though, that she'd need some time to process this and it was best if she sat down. She tried to stand up as well, but her legs wobbled under her, leading her to quickly sit down again. Sabine hummed a little, without turning around, as if she knew how much her daughter was struggling. "Take your time. Don't try to process it all at once." She repeated, sending a sly, mischievous smile over her shoulder. In that one look, Marinette finally caught a glimpse of the fox superhero that her mother must have been hiding this whole time.

Left alone in her room with only Tikki and her thoughts, Marinette sat for a minute longer, staring into space. Then, she flopped back on her bed, a small 'oof' escaping her lips, as she stared blankly at the ceiling. Tikki came to float over her head. "Marinette?"

"My parents are superheroes, Tikki."

"Yes, it would appear that way." Tikki beamed at her. "That's a good thing, don't you think?"

"Yes. Yes! It's just—it's so big, Tikki! I mean— _wow_." Marinette grinned despite her, letting out a sudden bark. For the first time that day, her expression turned to one of relief. "My parents don't have any problem with me being a superhero because my parents _are also superheroes_. Or, at least, they were. They used to be. I can't wait to hear the stories…"

"But maybe you could wait until you finished your homework?" Tikki prompted with a small, pleased smile. This had turned out fairly well and it looks like she had nothing to worry about, at least in regards to this reveal. Trixx and Pollen. Kwamis. The names, the references, she believed all of it to be true. Marinette's parents really had been previous miraculous holders, so they would know better than to casually reveal this sort of information. Even having suspected that Marinette was Ladybug, neither had approached her with the knowledge or tried to share it until she came to them first. Marinette sat up, nodding absently even as she headed to her computer.

"Marinette, look—" Tikki began, wincing as Marinette tripped over the rug in her room. "—out."

"Oof." Marinette rubbed her sore nose, wincing slightly at the pain in her wrist. She had hit it pretty good from catching herself in that fall. "…maybe I should pay attention to where I'm going, huh? And focus on other things, at least until my homework is done and everything is sorted for school tomorrow."

"That would probably be best, yes." Tikki giggled, coming over to cuddle her cheek. Marinette giggled as well, giving her a small kiss on the head before heading to the computer, shaking her sore hand. This could wait until later…

Of course, as she jumped out of bed the next morning, her alarm blaring that she was late getting up, Marinette felt the inklings of panic from yesterday welling up again. She rushed around her room, righting everything and making sure it was neatly in it's place before tackling the stairs two to three at a time. She waved to her parents, slamming out of the bakery in her hurry to get to school. Dodging through the side walk traffic, across the street, she darted to school. It was as she was running up the stairs of the school to her first class that her brain started melting down. _Her parents were superheroes._ Her parents used to dress up and fight crime often enough that they could say it like it was nothing. Going completely on autopilot, she screeched into the class a few minutes before the first bell rang. Alya waved at her, but Marinette stood frozen in front of the steps, looking utterly panicked. Eyebrows raising, she glanced back to see Nino and Adrien coming into the classroom. She rushed down the steps, giving the boys a vaguely reassuring smile before her hands landed on Marinette's shoulders.

"Girl, talk to me. What's going on?"

Marinette's eyes darted up to her, still wide. She was in full panic mode already. Alya had no idea what was going through her head right now, though.

"Marinette?"

You would think the voice of the love of her life would snap her out of it, but nope. Marinette's eyes darted to the side, taking in Nino's worried look and Adrien's obvious concern. Her eyes darted back to Alya. Nope. Still in full panic mode.

"What happened? Talk to me girl." Alya urged.

Chloe scoffed. "Leave her be. When Miss Bustier comes in, she'll get her to move."

Alya shot her a glare before returning her attention to Marinette. She gave her a nervous smile, shaking her shoulders slightly. "Come on, Marinette. Talk to me."

"I—" Marinette begins, looking so lost.

"You?" Alya prompts.

Their teacher, Miss Bustier, walked in at that moment. "Alright class, please take your seats. We'll be starting in a moment. Marinette, Alya, Nino, Adrien, this includes you four."

"Come on, girl, you can tell me in a minute." Alya grabbed her hand, intending drag her to her seat but Marientte refused to budge.

"Ladybug's parents are superheroes!" She suddenly blurted out, causing every head in the class to whip to stare at her. Her face paled and her hands started to shake, reaching up to grab her head. Alya had dropped her hand in the resulting shock, unable to keep her mouth from hanging open either. She didn't notice her mental break down had the entire class riveted, even the teacher. "Oh gosh. I don't know what to do. What do I do with this information?"

Before anyone could question her how she even had this information or Bustier could ask her to sit down, Marinette suddenly turned heel. "Excuse me!" She called over her shoulder, fleeing the oddly silent classroom. The silence ticked by for a few seconds before Alya suddenly turned and took two steps towards the door.

"Well hot damn. I'm not sure which is the bigger scoop. Ladybug's parents being superheroes or the fact that apparently, Marinette is good enough friends with her for her to share this."

Miss Bustier cleared her throat pointedly. "Alya, please be seated. Class is starting. When Marinette calms down from her internal freak out and comes back, you can question her then. Until then, you'll at least do me the courtesy of paying attention to _part_ of my class." She was under no illusions about the budding journalist in her midst. She'd chided and scolded and redirected her attention too many times to believe for an instant that Alya was about to give up this sudden and very surprising new information.

"Yes, Miss Bustier." Chimed the majority of the class, Alya included. With slumped shoulders, the brunette trudged back to her seat. This wasn't over, though. Not by a long shot. Marinette was going to talk to her today, that was for certain. Already too busy plotting how to get Marinette to talk, she didn't noticed the calculating and longing glance that Adrien sent the door before also taking his seat. Nino noticed, however, and he made a mental note to tell Alya later. Much later, once she'd gotten her scoop. She could only handle one obsession at a time, after all…


	2. Chapter 1: Panic

Marinette paced in the bathroom, trying to keep her internal freak out as quiet as possible but it kept spilling out. She groaned and scrubbed a hand over her face. "Marinette!!" Tikki cried in a chiding, warning tone once she was sure the coast was clear, floating up to hover in front of her face. Her face was full of disappointment and she crossed her little arms in front of her body.

"I know, I know! I'm just— I'm really freaking out here, Tikki! You have no idea how big this is! Not just for me, in general! Is this, is this like, a thing? Do superheroes go around breeding little superheroes? Oh gosh, is The Incredibles based on fact? I thought that was a cartoon, Tikki! I thought that was just—just a movie! A cartoon! Am I a cartoon, Tikki? Am I in some sort of wacky, alternate universe movie thing? This doesn't happen to normal people! This happens to—to people who are like, naturally talented and gifted up the wazoo from God! This happens to those sort of people, not to—to me!"

Tikki's expression faltered from it's scolding look to a more understanding expression. By the time Marinette had finished her melt down, she was cuddling her cheek, trying to calm her. "Hey. Hey. It's okay. You are plenty talented, Marinette. And you have many natural gifts. You're brave and strong and courageous and creative and kind; you have a big heart and you love giving to others. You are more than talented enough to be the star of your own movie."

Marinette let out a ragged breath and Tikki patted her cheek as reassuringly as she could. "But this is real life. And no, as far as I know, most superheroes don't go around popping out other little superheroes. At least, none of the former Chat Noir and Ladybug heroes I knew did. Trixx's kits, they liked to steal the spotlight, even if they didn't handle glory right, so maybe they tried or were even successful. I honestly don't know. As for Nooroo, Pollen, and Wayzz, that's not really their style. And Duusu, well Duusu's always been special in her own way. It wouldn't surprise me if she had a whole hoard of little ones she was training to be heroes but it wouldn't surprise me, either, if she didn't want to share the spotlight."

She flew away, hovering in front of Marinette's face and touching both cheeks with her little arms to hold her attention. It meant that she was a bit cross eyed but she was calming, which was the important part. Tikki gave her a reassuring smile. "The point is, your parents didn't have you to create a little hero. You were born because your parents love each other very much and wanted to have you. Being a hero isn't something you were born into, it's not something you were raised to be, Marinette. Being a hero is something you just are, naturally, without outside influence. Your parents raised you and they might have instilled the teachings that help you be heroic but it was your choice to continue following them, to live by them, and it's your choice to continue doing so in the future. _You_ are shaping your own future, Marinette."

Marinette's breathing had fully calmed and the angry, panic induced tears were clearing. She was finally able to breathe normally. "I know. I know…" She sighed and leaned her head forward slightly, gently pressing it against the kwami. Tikki giggled and pressed her head back against Marinette's forehead. "I just… panicked. So much has happened, Tikki, and I don't even know the full story! Just yesterday, I was just Marinette, just Ladybug. Then, Papa saw me and everything changed. And when I talked to them, everything changed again! And, and, I don't know what to do, how to handle this and— oh gosh, I just shouted that out in class! In _Alya's_ face! In front of _Adrien_!"

Marinette pulled away, groaning as she rubbed a hand down her face again. "They must think I'm _insane_. How am I going to explain this??"

"Calm down, Marinette." Tikki giggled. "Firstly, you've never been _just_ anybody. Secondly, why don't we tackle things one thing at a time?"

Marinette frowned but turned serious. Panicking could come later. First, she had to figure out how to get back to class and how she would handle Alya. "Well, it would help if we could start with you reminding me what I blurted out in the middle of class."

"That Ladybug's parents are superheroes." Tikki replied sweetly, holding back another giggle. While it wasn't the ideal situation, her poor Chosen was clearly so flustered by having her own reveal turned on her that it was funny. She was sure that once Plagg heard about this, he would laugh himself silly.

"Okay. Okay." Marinette's eyes brightened at that. "Okay, good! We can work with this! At least I didn't blurt out anything stupid or ridiculous or mention my parents."

"Yes, but this still leaves the problem of you knowing about Ladybug, and more importantly, her _parents_." Tikki replied, crossing her arms, this time in deep thought rather than disappointment.

"Yes, well, I'll just say— I'll stick to the truth as closely as possible!" Marinette's eyes widened as inspiration hit her. "I'll tell it almost exactly how it happened. I saw Ladybug yesterday while she was out and noticed she was off. When I asked what was wrong, she blurted out her problem to me. She found out about her parents yesterday and she was freaking out, not sure how to handle this, what to say or do. She came for me for advice but I was so floundered by the news I couldn't say anything to help her."

Tikki nodded. It was as plausible scenario as any they had. Only… "Will you be able to stick to that script?"

Marinette gave her a shaky smile. "I guess we'll see won't we?"

It was the most embarrassing thing in the world for Marinette to go back to class. She even went to Mr. Damocles first, to get a note to get back into class. A subtle way to apologize for the state she'd no doubt left it in when she suddenly made her announcement and fled. Red faced from blushing, she quietly entered the classroom. She wasn't surprised in the least when every head suddenly whipped towards her. She gulped and managed to only let her shoulders curl in a little. She walked straight up to Miss Bustier and handed her the note before turning and making her way to her desk. She silently sat down, cringing when Alya suddenly scooted over.

"Yes, well, thank you Marinette. Now, I'm sure you're all very curious about Marinette's sudden announcement earlier and want to ask her a lot of questions," her eyes landed on her most troublesome student, Alya, who gave her a sheepish smile. "But that can wait until break. We're still in class." Turning back to the board, she continued where she left off writing.

" _Girl!_ " Alya hissed at her.

Marinette winced again and held up a finger her lips, eyes beseeching Alya to hold on for a little longer. From her glare, her best friend felt she'd been keeping her waiting too long. " _ **Girl!!**_ " She hissed again, a little louder this time.

"Shh! Later, I promise!" Marinette whispered back, frantic to keep out of trouble.

Alya gave her a narrow eyed look that promised there would definitely _be_ a later but finally relented. Cringing, Marinette turned to face the front of the classroom again. She felt herself blush bright red to find Adrien had turned around in his seat and was staring at her. She ducked her head in embarrassment and saw him frown slightly from under her lashes. She didn't dare look at him directly, though. She didn't want to know how much of a freak, a crazy weirdo she must seem to him right now. And just when they'd gotten on mostly normal speaking ground, finally! She winced and saw him open his mouth to say something. Suddenly, Nino elbowed him in the side and Adrien quickly turned around. Just in time, too; Miss Bustier was turning around, calling on students to explain her lesson.

The next hour in class was almost physically painful for Marinette. More than once, she could practically feel the eyes turning to regard her in curiosity, trying to dissect her from one stupid statement. Why did her melt downs always have to be so public and make her seem crazy?? Why couldn't she have normal melt downs behind closed doors, where no one could see her, like the rest of the world?! She gulped more than once, wet her lips quite a few times, lost count of how many time she bit her lip, and was constantly glancing down, sometimes even blatantly staring at her notes in front of her in hopes that people would just. stop. staring.

She gulped ten times, wet her lips fifteen, and Adrien swore if she bit her lip once more than the twenty three she'd already done in class, he'd lose his mind. He'd counted, every time he turned in his seat, trying to see her, to get her attention, to puzzle out why Ladybug had felt more comfortable sharing with this girl than with him, her own partner. The minute class ended and the bell rang, he was turning around fully in his seat. Much as he expected, Alya had practically pounced on Marinette, holding the girl's arm hostage so she couldn't get away.

"Let, let me just pack up my stuff first, Alya." She begged.

"Nuh uh. Spill. What did you mean, Ladybug's parents are superheroes? How do you know this? Do you know Ladybug? Do you know her outside of the suit, too? Spill!"

Marinette winced but didn't being forced to sit again. "Al-alright." She replied shakily. "I just— I saw her yesterday, while I was out on my balcony… watering plants! You know, my garden? Ah ha ha…" She winced. "Alya, you're cutting off the circulation to my arm…"

"And you're not cutting quickly enough to the good part! What happened next?" Alya shook her lightly but at least loosened her death grip a bit.

Marinette sighed. "Look, I just— She seemed kind of out of it, okay? That's all. And I— I called out to her, asked her what was wrong—" She visualized Chat Noir, visualized the one time outside she'd seen him apart from when her life was being terrorized by an akuma, running along the rooves. She'd done something similar that time. Her expression softened slightly and she sighed ever so softly. "…she jumped down. When I asked her again what was wrong, if it was an akuma, if I should hide…"

She visualized Chat, his petulant expression at being caught, just before sunset, out for a run to relax. His reluctance to let her know he was trying to unwind after a long day. Remembered finding out about the other side of a superhero for a first time, that Chat Noir wasn't always fun and games, that he hated going home to an empty house. They hadn't talked much about his home life, she'd changed the topic to distract him, but it had been her first time reaching out to help a superhero outside of battle. She bit her lip as she remembered, channeling those emotions, those truths, into her poor acting skills. She could do this. She could do this.

"She just blurted it out." She winced, remembering the way she had done so in class. "I don't even think she meant to tell me. She was just in a panic, overwhelmed. She'd just found out a little bit before and she was dealing with an akuma fight or the aftermath or something and she just— she was freaking out."

She bit her lip, looking up at Alya, hoping her fibbing had paid off. Had she done a good job?

Alya, meanwhile, had dropped her jaw again. Her mouth was just hanging open, staring at Marinette in shock. "Ladybug's parents are superheroes… and she just found out?"

Marinette nodded hesitantly.

"Do you know what this means?" Alya whispered harshly. "This means I just got the scoop of the century!"

Marinette winced. "I don't know, Alya, I don't really think you should—" But she knew there was no stopping her best friend, who was already grabbing at her phone, her grip on Marinette's arm going incredibly slack.

"I've got to update the Ladyblog with all of this. What did she say? What was she like? Did she give any clues on her real life?"

Marinette bit her lip again. "She, she didn't say much. She was pretty freaked out. She just…" She winced again, very conscious of all the attention on her. Of _Adrien's_ attention on her. Gosh, she must seem like such a freak right now! A complete _spazz_. "She wanted… my help…" She mumbled out.

"Your help? Your help with what?" Alya questioned, dutifully typing all of this into her phone with one hand, thumb tapping away.

"With… talking to parents."

Alya paused, turning to frown at her but Marinette didn't notice. The creeping panic that had been held at bay by the intensity of this situation, by the scrutiny of her classmates and the necessity of getting this right, above all else, was finally back in full force. Marinette's breath stuttered and Alya frowned harder, setting her phone aside. "Marinette?"

"How to talk to her parents! How am I supposed to know, Alya?" Marinette shrieked, suddenly rounding on her best friend. She wrneched her arm out of her slack grip but didn't run away. This time, she grabbed frantically at Alya, eyes wide in panic. "She wanted to know how to talk to them! How to bring it up! How to ask questions! How am I supposed to know that sort of stuff? Do you just work it into every day conversation? How would that go? Hi, Maman, Papa, how was work today? I have a school project due tomorrow so I'm going to go do my homework, but real quick, _how many people did you used to fight off back in the day? Did you ever rescue someone from a bank robbery? Why did you chose those superhero names? Was it hard being a superhero or did it come naturally? When's dinner?_ Like that?! I don't even know what to ask, where to start! I mean, this is so big!"

She shook Alya, as if trying to get her attention, again seemingly missing the fact that everyone's attention was once again all on her. "She asked me and I just panicked! I have no idea how to have these sorts of conversation! What am I supposed to tell her? I—"

Alya put her hands on Marinette's, stopping her from shaking the brunette. "Whoa, girl, slow down. First off, that was completely unfair of Ladybug, to push her problems off on you. And second, I don't think she meant to make you this upset. She was probably just panicking, cause like you said, it's a big deal, and you did say she just… blurted it out. I'm sure she's perfectly alright with you not knowing the answers to her questions. Just calm down, okay?"

Marinette hung her head in defeat, feeling close to tears. Her hands shook even as her grip went slack. "I just— I'm such a disappointment, Alya. She came to me for help and I couldn't— I couldn't even answer one question. I want to help her. I need to help her. I just have no idea what to say. I failed her, I failed Ladybug…"

A hand on her arm draws her attention to the side. Tears blink quickly out of the way as she stares in shock and awe at the blond boy giving her a tentative smile. "You're not a failure, Marinette. And like Alya said, I very much doubt Ladybug meant to give you all this trouble. She'd probably be pretty mad at herself if she knew you were freaking out so much over what she said. And you're not a disappointment."

Marinette stared for a few seconds longer before her eyes darted to the hand on her upper arm, still there, thumb stroking it absently to calm her. Her eyes darted up to Adrien again, who seemed to realize what he was doing and blushed slightly. She nodded quickly, before he could take his hand back. "O-okay."

He beamed at her, pleased his words had gotten through. Nino piped up from his side, adding his two cents to the conversation. "As for what to say, if Ladybug swings by again and asks, just tell her to take things slow. Probably ask one question at a time, whatever she feels comfortable with asking."

Marinette focused on him, nodding a little again and giving him a quick flash of a smile, before her eyes darted to Adrien once more. He was still holding her arm. His thumb was still tracing soothing circles. Her grip tightened on Alya to keep her from freaking out externally. Alya's hands squeezed her forearms in encouragement. Nino caught his girlfriend's eye and smirked, subtly holding up his phone to indicate he'd be texting her later. She narrowed her eyes at him before nodding slowly, turning to eye Adrien critically. She'd missed something, then, besides all this touchy feely stuff going on right now. Seems mister perfect model was pretty close to actually _actively_ seducing her best friend on his own, which was progress. It was hard to tell with him sometimes, though. After all, he did seem to do quite well on his own, without even trying.

The bell rang, putting an end to their impasse. Adrien did one last, lingering swipe with his thumb before he gave her arm a small squeeze and let go. He turned around, sitting down again and preparing for class. Nino shot a glance his way, a longer look at Marinette, before he too sat down. Marinette stood frozen, staring down after Adrien, as if she expected any moment for him to sweep her off her feet. Alya didn't blame her, the poor girl. Her crush was bad and this boy was doing nothing but building it up. If she didn't know from first hand experience how dense he was, she'd half suspect it was on purpose. Slowly, she guided Marinette to sit down, who finally released her arms. She took a deep breath—and then sat forward all of a sudden, resting her head on her arms as a make shift pillow. Seems she needed to decompress, then. Alya smirked, pulling out her phone discreetly under the table to text back and forth with Nino. She needed _all_ the deets.

The rest of the day moved like a blur for Marinette. She was stuck in a timeless loop of Adrien blushing, Adrien encouraging her, Adrien rubbing soothing circles on her arm… Alya had to elbow her three or four times, to keep her from drawing attention with her love sick sighs. Having witnessed to colossal freak outs from her today, Miss Bustier was at least kind enough not to call on her in class but that hadn't stopped her from getting in trouble with three of her other teachers. She should still be wincing from the stinging remark her last teacher had made but instead, she was back on cloud nine over Adrien. And Nino had helped her out, too, giving her good advice over talking it over with her parents. If she approached it one question at a time, it would give her a chance to not get overwhelmed and to back off when it was becoming too much. Yes, today was certainly looking up.

She packed her things in a hurry, rushing out the classroom before anyone could stop her. When Alya darted out, close on her heels, asking where she was going, Marinette called over her shoulder a half-truth. She was going home, to discuss it over with her parents and come up with new ideas for Ladybug! It was a mostly true statement, so she managed to say it without giving anything away. It helped, too, that she was running and that threw off her normally bad lying, disguising it. She wasn't going to question her luck in them buying it, she had more important things to do. Like getting home and questioning her parents. Her parents were _superheroes!_

However, coming home revealed the bakery was experiencing one of it's busy times. She frowned slightly, taking in the customers. Parents on their way to pick up kids and a few who already had, their children roaming around the display cases, eyeing the sweeter treats. Someone ordering a catering order at the cash register, meaning more business and more money but also less time to talk. As things were right now, it looked like she wouldn't get a word with her parents any time soon. Plus, the after school part time worker hadn't shown up yet. Until he did, her parents would be mostly running the store by themselves. She couldn't distract them from that. She greeted both her Maman and Papa with a kiss on the cheek, pretending it was just a normal day, shouting that she had homework over her shoulder as she went.

With a frusterated sigh, she dropped her school bag in her room and frowned, flopping on the bed. Tikki flew out of her purse and darted over to pat her on the cheek. "Cheer up, Marinette!" She soothed. "I'm sure you'll have a chance to talk to them soon!"

"Yeah… I guess so. Can't let this discourage me, right Tikki?" She said with a soft smile. There would always be later. Wishing it didn't take so much effort to get her mind off it, she sat up slowly and reached for her sketchbook. Her hand hovered over it for a minute before she shook her head. No, she couldn't risk using her usual one. What if someone happened to peek in and see? Eyes lighting up with determination, she stood up abruptly and started rummaging around her room, looking for something. Tikki darted around, watching her, waiting patiently for Marinette to clue her in on what she was thinking. Finally, she found it, a completely unused sketchbook. She beamed at Tikki, holding it out for her to admire. "I was thinking I could sketch out some designs of what I thought they looked like as superheroes. Maybe by funneling some of this nervous energy into designs, I could find a way to not let it become my latest obsession."

Tikki giggled and flitted around. "That sounds like a good idea, Marinette."

The girl gave her kwami a shy smile as she picked up her purse and stashed a few cookies in there. Setting down her sketchbook, she focused on asking Tikki and important question. "Do you think it would be okay if I got out of the house for a little bit…?"

Tikki beamed at her. "You should probably leave a note for your parents, just in case, but I don't see why not."

Marinette nodded. Something innocent, then, in case someone else came into her room, but that they would understand. She left a quick note on her desk, taped to her computer screen, saying she went out but that she should be back before dinner. She purposely left the sky light open, so they'd get the picture by what she meant. Up on the balcony, Tikki transformed her and she was off, Ladybug swinging over the streets of Paris, sketchbook tucked under her arm. She didn't stop to think what it might mean to anyone who might have spotted her, although there were no akuma sightings. She just needed to get out, away from the crowds but out in the open for a bit. Running over several rooves, she only stopped when she was across from Notre Dame. Relaxing on the roof of the building, she opened her sketchbook and let inspiration come to her. She began sketching, first an outline.

Trying to picture it, based on what he said and what she knew of her father, she sketched out a rough outline of a tall man. He said he'd been a bit thinner, more muscularly defined, in his youth. So similar build but with more muscular definition? She hesitantly recalled what she remembered of Shang from Mulan, but somehow, that didn't seem exactly right. Upper body mass, her father would have been more upper bodily defined. That's what he meant, right? Okay, she could work with that. So, slightly more toned arms, firmer pecks. Yes. Yes! She wasn't sure if she could imagine her father with a six pack but maybe a four? Or at least, a toned core. And long hair? She tried to picture it but it was hard. Oh well, she could work on the hair another time. Now, it was time for the costume design.

Staring blankly at Notre Dame, letting inspiration come to her for the design, she didn't notice a certain black cat bounding on the rooves in her direction. She leaned forward, working on sketching her ideas, completely oblivious. She created a slightly fuzzy top for him, since he'd chosen the name "Bourdon", and lightly colored it in so it was black. For the legs, she added stripes. She colored in the black ones and made a mental note to add yellow to the design later. Hmm, what else? Wings didn't seem quite right for him, somehow, at least not on the back… Oh! What about gauntlets? She didn't know why but she could imagine her father wearing gauntlets. She added that to her design and held it in front of her, admiring her work.

"Who's that supposed to be?"

"Wha!" Ladybug shouted, nearly dropping the sketchbook in her panic. She jumped up, whirling around and holding the sketchbook to her chest, staring with wide eyes—at Chat. Her whole body sagged in relief. "Don't do that! You nearly scared the life out of me, Chaton."

He grinned at her, unrepentive. "Imagine how I felt when you suddenly swung over my head in a hurry."

She frowned but had the decency to look properly abashed. "Sorry." She looked down and toed the roof with one foot, giving him a chance to catch up to the situation. Adrien had panicked, thinking at first that there was an akuma attack going on and he'd somehow missed the alert when Ladybug swung overhead on his way home from school. He'd raced to his room, shouting he had to prepare for a test and not to disturb him, before closing the door, dumping his stuff on the couch, and transforming. He'd raced towards where he'd seen her last, listening intently for the sound of a battle, but there was none. Much to his surprise, she was sitting peacefully on a roof, looking out at Notre Dame, and sketching whenever she looked down. He hadn't meant to sneak up on her, honest. His footsteps weren't even that soft. He leaned over her shoulder, watching her sketch, watching as a new superhero seemed to come to life on the pages. Curious. Looks like Marinette might be right after all. Were Ladybug's parents really superheroes? He'd asked who that was but immediately backed up when she jumped, startled.

He frowned, recalling the other part of this morning. Marinette, very upset over having someone else's problems dumped on her. He crossed his arms, pouting at Ladybug a bit. "You know, you could have told me yesterday. You could have talked to me."

Her brows furrowed in confusion. "Told you what?"

"That your parents were superheroes and that's why you were off your game. You were freaking out. We're partners, Ladybug! If you're confused or scared or freaking out or anything, you can tell me, talk to me about it. You don't have to go talk to civilians."

Ladybug stared at him with wide eyes, the sketchbook falling from her hands now, and his frowned deepened. Why was she looking at him like that?

"How—how do you know that? I, I only told—" She cut off, hands going to cover her mouth. No, she couldn't say anymore, she'd give her identity away. But there was no way he should have known that. Only her class should know that!

For the first time, Chat Noir looked sheepish. Oh. Maybe he wasn't supposed to know yet. Oops. He should have let her come to him, talk to him about it on her own. He'd forced the truth out there, before she was ready. Rubbing the back of his neck nervously, he admitted the truth. "Well, uhh, I guess you told Marinette yesterday? And, well, she'd kind of in my class and she blurted it out today."

"Marinette… is in your class?!" She squeaked out, hands still covering her mouth, eyes wide as she stared at him. He frowned but nodded anyway.

"Yeah, one of them. Look, it's not really her fault! I don't think she meant to blab your secret, she was just… really freaking out! She's a really sweet girl and she tends to get a bit emotional, especially when it comes to things she cares about. She was really panicked over trying to help you and she felt like she'd failed, that she had disappointed you somehow."

"She— you think she's sweet?" Ladybug looked like she was having trouble grasping any of this conversation, like she was about to go into a full panic attack. For the first time, Adrien felt the inklings of panic himself.

"I— well, yes, I do, but that's not the point here! Look, don't be mad with her, okay? It was an honest mistake, she didn't mean anything by it, and pretty much the whole class has agreed to keep quiet on the matter. We're sort of… used to Marinette's freak outs and panic attacks and blabbing about random things."

"I—I have to go." Ladybug suddenly said, pale now. Her hand was shaking as she reached down and grabbed her yo-yo. She was already swinging away before Chat had time to process what she said or the fact that she'd left her sketchbook behind in her panic.

"Wait! Ladybug, your— sketchbook…" She was already gone. Hanging his head in defeat, Chat Noir sighed and turned, heading home. Racing over the rooves of Paris, he used his baton to make it the last few feet through his window. He released his transformation with a quiet claws in before flopping on the couch face first. He gestured listlessly towards the table when Plagg complained to him about need camberbert. He laid there for a few minutes before peeking an eye out. Hesitantly, he opened the sketchbook, fingers absently tracing over the superhero she'd drawn. It was beautifully drawn, he admit, and with a surprising amount of details. He had to give it back to her, he knew, but right now he was feeling sorry for himself.

Meanwhile, Ladybug swung home and de-transformed, gesturing helplessly to Tikki for her to go snack on the cookie plate her parents had left her. Despondantly, she flopped face first on her bed. She felt like crying. Not only had Adrien seen her mental break down and heard her equally embarrassing freak out as Marinette, so had Chat Noir, whoever he was. She wasn't even worried about the fact that he was in the same class as her or that he knew Marinette. Nearly discovering Chat Noir's secret identity seemed to pale in comparison to everything else hanging over her head. She was a failure of a superhero. Oh, not at doing her job, she did that excellently. Even she knew and recognized that. However, keeping this secret identity thing secret, that's where she was a failure. She was horrible at lying, even worse at acting, hated that she had to fib about practically everything these days (or so it seemed) and to make matters worse, now she had no idea who was lying back to her. Her parents had for all her life, it seemed, and now Chat Noir was disappointed in her because she had freaked out Marinette, even though she was Marinette. Her life was a mess. With a groan, Marinette buried her head deeper into her pillow.

Having finished her cookie, Tikki came and patted Marinette on the head. With so many reveals going on, she didn't think her Chosen was up for handling another. Learning about the fact that Chat Noir went to her school, was in her class, might just be too much for her to handle right now. "Marinette, don't be like that. I'm sure it can't be too bad."

Marinette lifted her head to reveal she was crying again. "Chat Noir hates me, Tikki. Or, or worse, he's disappointed in me. I left my parents down today, revealing their secret to my entire class. One day after they tell me and I'm already spreading rumors all over Paris! And worse, I almost outted myself in the process! I just—I suck at keep things a secret, Tikki, at lying to people all the time. I can do everything else that it requires to be a hero but not, not this."

With a sniffle, she burried her head back in her pillow. She refused to listen to Tikki, content with curling up on herself and crying her troubles away. She was still there, moping and feeling sorry for herself, two hours later when her parents came to check on her and see why she missed dinner. She wasn't crying anymore, just wallowing in self-pity. Sabine came to sit on her bed, rubbing her back a bit. "Marinette?"

"Go away." Came the muffled response.

"Ma douce, you at least need to eat. You'll need to keep your strength as a superhero and—"

"I'm not cut out to be a superhero…" Marinette moaned.

Sabine puckered her lips in response. Her hand stilled for a moment as she considered her response carefully, before resuming trying to relax her daughter. "Sure you are. You make an excellent Ladybug. Why would you think otherwise?"

Marinette sat up, tears springing to her eyes again. "Because I failed. I failed you and Papa. And I almost failed myself."

Sabine glanced at Tom but he looked equally as confused by this news as her. He shrugged and she returned her attention back to Marinette, stroking her hair to calm her daughter. "Why would you ever think that?"

Marinette's lip wobbled slightly but she kept the tears at bay by blinking rapidly. "I told my class that Ladybug's parents are superheroes!" She suddenly blurted out. Throwing her hands up in the air, she collapsed on the bed and threw her arm over her eyes. "I didn't mean to, it just came out! I was panicking and I just—"

Sabine couldn't help the little chuckle that escaped her lips. She tugged her sullen daughter up, wrapping an arm around her in a half hug. "Oh. Well, that's not so bad as all that, is it? Technically, you didn't lie and nobody really knows the truth, about your or us."

When Marinette didn't respond, Tom sat down on the other side of the bed and placed a kiss on top of her head. "It'll be alright, ma petite fille."

"But what if I make another mistake? A bigger mistake? What if I get you and Maman in trouble with my big mouth?" She whispered, sounding genuinely afraid. "You're not—you're not superheroes anymore. And I have to defend all of Paris. I can't—can't give you guys special treatment."

"Oh mon coeur," Tom cooed, picking her up and craddling his daughter in his arms. He hadn't done this since she was a little girl but she needed his strength right now. She immediately wrapped her arms around him and he held her close. "You don't need to worry about us. That's our job, mon petit. Your mother and I, we can take care of ourselves. And even if you make a mistake, if you accidentally reveal us, we'll deal with it then. That doesn't change the facts, Marinette. You are an excellent Ladybug and you are our daughter. We will always love you and we are proud of the hero you've become."

Marinette stayed cuddled up to her father for a few minutes before her stomach growled. Self-pity didn't feed an empty stomach, after all. Sabine laughed and patted her hair. "Now, why don't you come down stairs, have something to eat, and tell us all about what happened today."

Marinette sniffed and nodded. That sounded good. Wallowing was getting on her nerves anyway. She probably would have only lasted another hour before she got fed up with it and tried to find a solution herself. If not sooner, since she was also hungry. She let her parents lead her downstairs, to the dining table, where she was fed cordon bleu with fried rice and buttered rolls. It wasn't as good as her Maman's poulet de Provencal but it definitely hit the spot. Between bites, she told them all about her day, starting with her little faux pas in class first thing this morning, her second freak out in the bathroom, her exemplary acting skills under pressure, her third freak out of the day on Alya. She told them about Adrien and then about Nino's suggestion on how to talk to them. She told them about coming home and not wanting to bother them while they were working, so she went up to her room, grabbed an empty sketchbook, and went off to star at Notre Dame while she tried to sketch out what she imagined Papa's costume looked like. She ended by telling them about her run in with Chat Noir, her running away out of embarrassment at him having seen Marinette acting like such a fool in class, and sighed. "And then you walked in on my pity party and ruined it."

"It was such a lovely pity party, too." Sabine replied with a small smile.

"Such a shame that your little tete-ta-tete was ruined." Her Papa added with a mirthful twinkle in his eye.

Marinette groaned at her parents. "Maman! Papa!"

Sabine cleared the dishes and Marinette went to help her wash and put them in the dishwasher. "We're only teasing, mon cher."

"I know, I know…" She gave them a smile, not as bright as her usual ones but one that proved she was doing much better than earlier. "I'm just worried…"

Tom watched his daughter bite her lip before catching his wife's eyes. They shared a silent conversation for a few minutes before she nodded and went back to setting aside left overs. "Marinette, you said that the reason you freaked out in class is because of our reveal. Is that right?"

She nodded slowly, peeking at him from the corner of her eye. "Yes, Papa."

"And you're worried that you upset us, right?"

She nodded again.

He looked thoughtful, considering her for a few minutes. "While I don't think that you've disappointed us nearly as much as you seem to think you have, I do understand your concerns. So how about this? Your punishment will be earning the right to hear our superhero stories, as you put them, each day. We'll slowly build up to them, starting with my journey to Shanghai and what led me to getting my miraculous. Will that make you feel better?"

Marinette's eyes lit up. "Yes!" Drying her hands quickly, she rushed around the counter to wrap him in a hug. "Thank you, Papa!"

It was actually a punishment but it would allow her to feel like she was making things up to her parents, which was important to her. She had shared their secret without permission, after all. Plus, it would give her a chance to work up to the important questions she wanted to ask them without allowing her a chance to freak out. She pulled back and looked up at him, a huge smile on her face. "When do we start?"

"How about tomorrow. We'll start with Spain and Portugal."

"Spain and… Portugal?"

He smiled at her obvious confusion. "Marinette, I backpacked across Euroasia in order to get to Shanghai. All those stories, the people I met, the desserts I tried and the recipes I learned, all led up to me becoming who I am today. Getting a miraculous isn't the only thing that defines you."

Slowly, she nodded. She'd been happy with who she was, even if she had been a bit more timid back then, before she gained her miraculous. It would be interesting hearing about who her father used to be, as a young man and before he got his miraculous. Maybe hearing his stories would help her understand why he was chosen, and in turn, why she was chosen. It couldn't hurt anything, could it?

"So, what do I have to do tomorrow?"

"Well, for starters, you need to make up with Chat Noir…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the next couple of chapters, we're going to get a little build up of Tom's Character and his research across Europe to learn more about pastries and desserts in other countries. I'll add a note here later to let you know which chapter to skip to if you want to jump straight to reading about Tom and Sabine as superheroes.


	3. Chapter 2: El Tarlà

Marinette frowned at Tikki the next morning, brushing her hair. “I still don’t get it, Tikki. What did Papa mean, make up with Chat Noir? It’s not like we’re fighting or anything.”

Tikki floated around her, darting from side to side to admire her handiwork as she did her hair up in it’s usual pigtails. “I don’t know, Marinette. But you did suddenly leave him on the roof yesterday.”

“I was panicking!” Marinette defended.

“ _I_ know that but he certainly doesn’t. So, what are you going to say to him today?”

Marinette groaned and dropped her head on the desk with a sigh. “I’ll start with _I’m sorry for abandoning you yesterday to go freak out at home_ and maybe ask why he had to give such a big clue in regards to his identity.” She let out another groan and squeezed her eyes shut. “Not only did Alya and _Adrien_ see my big freak out as Marinette, so did _Chat Noir_. He must think I’m such a spazz, Tikki!”

“It’s alright, Marinette! I’m sure he’ll understand, once you just talk honestly to him!”

“As honestly as I can, without giving my identity away…” She sighed and sat up, reaching to gather up her things and get ready for her school day. “Well, I’ll have to puzzle this out later. I’m going to go down for breakfast, maybe talk to Maman this morning about this whole… superhero thing.”

She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that her parents, her _parents_ , were superheroes. It still felt like it was a lot to take in. She just wasn’t sure she could imagine it. Not that she felt her parents couldn’t be heroic in the right circumstances, but they’d always been, well, _bakers_ her whole life. Hadn’t they? She frowned when she realized she didn’t know exactly when they gave up their miraculouses or why. Determined, she decided that would be the first place she would start with her questions. They hadn’t said she couldn’t ask questions while she was earning the right to hear their stories, after all. It couldn’t hurt to try.

Coming down stairs, she greeted her Maman with a kiss on the cheek. “Morning, Maman! Can I ask a question? About you being a superhero?”

Sabine smiled at her, preparing a bowl of cereal for her daughter to enjoy. Well, that explained why she was up a little early this morning. “Alright. Just one, though. Your father still wants you to earn the right to our stories.”

Marinette nodded eagerly. “Alright. Just one!” She took a moment to figure out how to word it before just giving up and blurting out the words as best as she could. “When did you stop?”

“Stop? Stop what?” Sabine’s eyes twinkled with mischief, waiting expectantly. She knew exactly what her daughter was asking but wanted her to spell it out.

Marinette flustered but did well under pressure. She could do this. She could do this! “When did you give up your miraculous? Was it before I was born? After? How old was I?”

“Oh, it was after you were born.” Sabine replied easily. “You were just over two years old. I think three, no, four months, after your birthday?” She smiled easily, a secretive smile in her eye. “We just followed some advice and gave them up when it was the right time.”

Marinette immediately latched onto that phrase. “Advice? Someone gave you advice on this?” Her mind flashed to Master Fuu. Had he met her parents? Did he know them? Did he choose them as well? “Who? Who gave you the advice? How did you know it was the right time? Was it hard, giving them up? Do you ever regret it? Did—”

Sabine giggled softly and shook her head. “I agreed to one question, Marinette. Eat your cereal.”

Slumping in disappointment, Marinette nodded her head obediently. “Yes, Maman.” Her mind was a flurry of activity, even as she tried to diligently focus on her breakfast. She half-heartedly took bite after bite, trying to puzzle the pieces of information together from the hints given to her this morning. Sabine watched her with a fond smile, enjoying teasing her daughter but not wanting her too distracted at school.

“Marinette, it’s almost time to go.”

“Huh?” She came out of her stupor long enough to look at the clock. Her eyes widened as she realized how late it was getting. Sabine withheld a giggle but she couldn’t keep the amused smile off her lips as her daughter jumped up, spilling her bowl in the process, and groaned. She quickly cleaned up the mess before rushing upstairs to get her things. As she came racing down the stairs and paused long enough to give her another kiss on the cheek goodbye, Sabine caught her arm lightly.

“How about I allow one question per day, to help you sort through things? I can’t answer for your father but I can at least answer for my side of things.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she flung her arms around her in a quick hug. “Merci, Maman!”

But she didn’t have long to dally. She pulled back, gave her a wave, and rushed out the door. Sabine smiled as she watched her go, shaking her head lightly. Things would be a little more interesting in the mornings, it seemed. That was fine, though. She could use a bit of change in her life. Foxes tended to be rather playful, after all.

Marinette ran to school, slowly only when she got to the entrance. She slowed, her thoughts naturally going back to this morning. She considered everything she learned, wondering how long it would take to get used to all the changes in her perception. It would definitely take a while to get used to knowing that everything she used to think was true about her parents was being turned on its head. Not to mention, she had to figure out how to handle this quickly. It had effected her partnership with Chat twice now. She couldn’t let that continue. She and her beloved feline partner would have to get on the same page and soon if they were going to continue working together to stop Hawkmoth. However much this might be effecting her, she had to learn how to balance life, superheroing, and school on the fly again.

“Good morning, Marinette.”

“Morning, Mylene.” She replied absently.

“How are you doing today?”

“Fine, fine.” Marinette sighed heavily.

Mylene frowned at her slightly, giving her a concerned look. “You don’t sound fine.”

“Just… dealing with some stuff. Sorry, Mylene!” Marinette pulled herself out of her head to give her friend a sheepish smile. “How are you doing this morning?”

“I’m great, Marinette!” She replied with a big smile before suddenly leaning forward and putting a hand on her arm as the two girls walked into class. “You know, Marinette, you can talk to me, too. I might not be as into Ladybug as Alya but I wouldn’t mind helping out how I can.”

Marinette gave her a grateful smile. “Thanks, Mylene, but really, everything’s fine!”

“And where have I heard that before?” Alya scoffed, coming in behind the girls and crossing her arms, giving Marinette a once over. Her best friend eyed her skeptically, as if she could sense the wheels in her head still trying to turn.

Marinette winced. She didn’t want to constantly bring her feelings or life problems in regards to her dual life into the classroom. “Look, Alya, I really don’t know any more about Ladybug. I promise.” She swallowed and glanced away quickly before looking back at her. She hated lying to her like this but it was necessary. She couldn’t let her secret identity be known. “And it’s not like we have frequent chats or anything! I’m sure yesterday was just a one-time thing.”

“Yesterday?!” Alya immediately latched onto that statement and Marinette winced. Of _course_ she’d misspeak and dig herself into a deeper hole. Behind her, Adrien and Nino walked into the class.

“Er, yeah! She, uh, came over to apologize!” She replied, thinking quickly. She winced, trying to make her on the fly story as believable as possible. She didn’t notice Adrien slowing to listen to her story or Nino matching his pace, shooting the blond a speculative look. “She felt really bad when she found I had a panic attack over it.”

“How did she find out that you had a panic attack over it?” Alya’s eyes sharpened, looking shrewd.

Marinette quickly looked away, lying again. “I don’t know. Tell you what, when she starts landing on your balcony with existential life crises, you can ask her.” She hadn’t meant to snap and her eyes widened as she realized how bitter she sounded. With a groan, she ran a hand over face. “Look, I really don’t want to talk about this today. Please? I think I’ve already messed up enough in this regard.”

Her snapping had Alya staring at her wide eyed, only for her expression to soften as she took in her best friend’s pleading. She wrapped an arm around her shoulder, guiding her to her seat. “Something else happened, didn’t it?”

Marinette groaned and flopped into her seat next to Alya. She wasn’t going to get out of this, was she? What could she safely talk about without raising suspicion? Certainly, she couldn’t talk too much about Chat Noir. She was already having a panic attack over knowing that Chat Noir was in one of her classes. It would be terrible if Alya found out as well! She didn’t even want to know what her best friend would do with that information. She didn’t doubt that Alya would hide her identity, even Chat’s, should she find it. Alya certainly loved superheroes and read enough comics to know how important something like that was but that didn’t mean she would be above using it as an excuse to get interview after interview, both on and off the record.

She groaned again and dropped her head on the desk before her. “She apparently got into a fight with Chat over me, okay?”

“Over you? Why?” Alya’s eyes sharpened with interest, casting a speculative glance Adrien’s way as he straightened suddenly.

Marinette didn’t notice. She made a muffled sound of annoyance, eyes squeezing closed as she buried her head in her arms. “I don’t know! Ask her!” She refused to say any more on the subject. She’d probably already said too much. Of _course_ she had. She was really bad at this lying and hiding her identity thing. Why didn’t being a superhero come with classes on it? Like in Sky High? She could really use some classes and advice right about now. Unfortunately, she seemed to keep going to the wrong sources for it.

Alya took pity on her and asked a completely different question. “Why does she keep coming to you, anyway?”

Marinette peeked her head out from her arms to glance at Alya warily. “I don’t know. I’m a good listener, I guess? She’d probably stop if she knew I kept breaking her trust and discussing this with all of you, though. I should tell her that.” With a sigh, she hid her face again.

Alya snorted and Marinette peeked out to level a glare her way. Alya instantly tried to sooth the unintentional insult by rubbing her back. “No offense, girl, I’m sure you’re a great listener and all, by again, why you? She has all of Paris, her family, her friends—”

“And a hidden identity. It’s not like she can exactly go to school and talk to her friends about this. How would that go, Alya?” Marinette snapped, sitting up suddenly, defensive. “Hey guys, I’m Ladybug! Nice to meet you. Now, can I talk to about my latest problem with an akuma? Or with keeping my identity secret? How do you guys feel about turning into akumas, is that hard? What exactly are you expecting?!”

Again, all eyes in the class slowly turned, becoming riveted on the agitated girl. Marinette pushed her hair back in frustration. “Neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir have anyone to talk to! There’s no one they can go to about their problems, except each other, and I imagine that has to get old fast. Who wants to listen to their friend constantly complain about the same problems? And there’s no guarantee that they even know each other’s identities, so that would make it even harder to share conversations together. Not to mention, Ladybug _just_ found out her parents are superheroes. Does she go to her parents with her problems now? Does she not? Who does she talk to about this stuff? So, I’m sorry that a superhero has come to me _twice_ since she started _saving Paris_ and accidentally unloaded her problems on me.”

Frustrated with herself for saying way too much and taking her problems out on her friend, Marinette stands up and grabs her purse. “Girl, wait, where are you going?” Alya asks quickly.

“I just—ugh! I’m sorry, I need a minute!” With that, she practically ran out of the class. She winced, imagining the lecture she was about to get from Tikki. She’d had diarrhea mouth again. She really needed to learn control that.

Behind her, in the class, murmuring slowly started up as the rest of the students stared after her second abrupt departure in as many days.

“Maybe Marinette is a secret fan of Ladybug and Chat Noir?” Mylene started slowly. She’d followed Marinette and Alya to their seats, wanting to help however she could but she hadn’t had a chance to add her thoughts before Marinette was spilling her ideas yet again.

“I mean, she’s never technically said she _wasn’t_ a fan.” Alya nodded slowly, staring after her best friend thoughtfully. “I’d never thought about any of that, though. Marinette has a point.”

“What if… she kept doing that?” Nino mused out loud. Adrien’s head snapped to him. He’d been staring after Marinette like the majority of the class, looking oddly conflicted. Now he just gaped at his friend in surprise.

“Yeah!” Kim instantly got on board with this idea. “I mean, Marinette listens fairly well as our class president. I’m sure she could do a good job listening to Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

“They do tend to do a lot for us.” Alix nodded begrudgingly. Kim grinned at her and she crossed her arms, glaring at him. She was allowed to agree to his ideas without him gloating and trying to rub it in her face!

“If she did, she’d most likely end up spilling their secrets to our class again.” Max pointed out.

Alya’s eyes lit up in delight. “And that’d be perfect!”

Heads whipped to her as she slammed her hands down on the desk. “Think about it! This would be our chance! We could help Ladybug and Chat Noir! They would go to Marinette and tell her their problems. What she couldn’t puzzle out on her own or help them simply by listening, we’d all put our heads together and help them out! What better way to help out the superheroes of Paris?”

The atmosphere in the class changed, the students starting to get excited over this idea. The more each of them contemplated it, the more each of them liked the idea. Well, with one obvious exception.

Chloe scoffed loudly, drawing eyes. “Great idea. I’m sure the heroes of Paris would love a bunch of teenagers knowing all about them, hearing about their problems second hand from some silly little girl and having a bunch of strangers puzzle over their personal lives for solutions. That would go over great. Not to mention, even if they did agree to this, who’s to say it has to be Marinette? Shouldn’t someone better, more qualified, be chosen to interact with them?”

“Oh yeah? And I suppose you think you’d be a better spokesperson?” Alya bit back.

Chloe flipped her hair back dismissively. “Of course I would be. After all, I know them intimately. They’ve saved me more than a couple of times and we’ve even worked together.” Or, well, almost. Chat Noir had refused to do her physics homework for her but that was a small detail.

“Only because you—” Alya began, bristling, only for Nino to cut her off.

“Look, lets not get ahead of ourselves. Neither Marinette nor Ladybug and Chat Noir have agreed to any of this. Why don’t we take things one step at a time?”

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Marinette threw some water on her face, trying to calm down. She watched out of the corner of her eye as an older girl finished drying her hands and left the bathroom. A quick glance around revealed they were well and truly alone now. Hesitantly, she tapped on the outside of her purse to let Tikki know, opening the clasp. Her kwami darted out, crossing her arms and staring at her in exasperation.

“Marinette!” She stressed.

Marinette sighed. “I know, I know. This is just… a lot harder than I originally imagined.” She threw water on her face again, reaching for a paper towel and wiping her face. “I need to get a grip, Tikki. I used to have a fairly decent handle on this. How do I get that back? How do I go to how I was before?”

Tikki sighed softly and patted her cheek lightly. “Unfortunately, there is no going back, Marinette, only forward. You’ll get through this, it just takes time. Change is a good thing but I guess you’ve been going through a bit _too_ many too quickly. It’s natural for you to feel a bit overwhelmed.”

Marinette nodded solemnly, listening as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

“Give it a few more days. When things change, you don’t instantly change and immediately know how to handle things. You’ve done remarkably well so far, well above the learning curve in how quick you’ve been to pick things up. You’ll figure this out as well. And I’ll try to be more patient as you find your way back to balancing your life again. It’s just going to take time, for _both_ of us, to get used to the new way things are.”

“I guess. I just wish I could get a handle on this quicker.” She bit her lip and glanced at Tikki. “Did I mess up too badly?”

“No, you didn’t say anything that would really give you away.” Her kwami instantly reassured, giving her a warm smile. “And you did make some good points. I suppose it must be hard, only having Chat and I to talk to about this. Even having your parents now… Well, it’ll probably be a while before you’re comfortable talking with them about this. After all, you’ve spent so much time hiding these things from them, it’s more second nature now. Opening up to them will be hard but it’s okay. You can take things at your own pace and we’ll match you to make you more comfortable.” Sometimes Tikki felt like she forgot how young and new all this was to her Chosen. Marinette was handling the changes in her life very well but it would make sense that at some point, she’d need help, back up in regards to all of this. She could only provide so much support. Marinette needed a bigger support network. Maybe she should talk to her about going back to see Master Fuu, see about expanding her network. But was that the right reason to ask for help in fighting Hawkmoth? Was that too selfish of a reason to request for new heroes? She’d have to take time to consider other options as well.

Marinette gave her a small smile, stroking her head and regaining her attention. “I should probably head back, before class starts.” Tikki nodded and darted into her purse.

Marinette rushed back to class, running in just as the bell rang. She darted to her seat, sitting down and giving Miss Bustier a sheepish smile. She was here on time, though, honest. She tried to ignore the looks Alya was getting her or the fact that her best friend seemed almost desperate to get her attention during class. Her confusion over this increased as she noticed Nino turn around two different times to shoot her reassuring smiles and once to give her a thumbs up. By the second class, she was noticing that a lot more of the class were paying attention to her and kept giving her looks and signs of encouragement. What was going on? She finally looked at Alya, who looked relieved to make eye contact and quickly scribbled out a note. This time, Marinette didn’t push it away and glanced at it curiously. All it said was that she needed to stop ignoring her and that she needed to talk to her at lunch, the whole class did. Marinette’s brows furrowed in confusion, curiosity, and mild concern. She didn’t notice the thoughtful glance Adrien shot her but Nino did.

At lunch, Marinette made her way towards the courtyard, only to be assaulted by Alya who was obviously excited. Her bestie grabbed her arms tightly, half guiding, half dragging her to a group of students. Her classmates, she recognized. Marinette’s brows furrowed again. “What’s going on?” She asked as she was pulled into their midst.

“We want you to be our spokesperson with Chat Noir and Ladybug.” Nino told her, patting her shoulder encouragingly and smiling.

“Whoa, whoa, _what?”_ Marinette squeaked, immediately alarmed. What were they trying to sign her up for?!

“We want you to be our go between!” Alya announced excitedly, shaking her slightly.

Marinette’s eyes widened. “Wait a sec—”

“You’d be perfect!”

“You pointed out some really good theories earlier—”

“They already trust you—”

“We’d love to help our heroes—”

The class started talking over each other excitedly, even as Marinette held up her hands and tried to be heard. “Wait, wait, _stop!”_ She cried in protest. “First of all, what? Second of all, why me? And third, _what?”_

“Well, they’re already coming to you with problems and talking to you, aren’t they?” Nino asked.

Marinette groaned, looking around at the eager and anxious faces. Even _Adrien_ was in this group. This was crazy. This was _insane!_ She couldn’t do this, for multiple reasons, not the least of wish being they wanted _her to talk to herself_ for them.

“That was two times in Ladybug’s case! Both of which were _accidents!_ And I’ve only talked to Chat Noir _once_ outside of being threatened by an akuma!” She winced, immediately realizing her mistake in mentioning that as the class latched onto that.

“You talked to Chat Noir?!” Several voices echoed in chorus.

Wincing again, she nodded slowly. “Yeah… I guess so? It was months ago, though, and we didn’t talk about anything, well, _personal.”_

Which was a blatant lie, because they had spoken briefly of his home life, which was far more personal than most people got to be with the superhero, and then they’d spoken of her home life, her school, little things but it had been everything personal. Light hearted and fun conversations, mostly, but personal.

“See? This could totally work! You already have a great rapport with both of them!” Alya crowed in triumph.

Marinette winced again. “Well, Chat Noir hasn’t come back to visit me since then, so I doubt that’s going to change any time soon. And Ladybug really doesn’t have any reason to visit me again, does she?”

She watched them deflate a little as her points started to hit home. Good. It was better to disappoint them now than even entertain this insane idea. She was having enough trouble as it was keeping her two identities separate and juggling her life. She didn’t need to add any more madness to the mix. But speaking of Ladybug. She bit her lip before lightly patting Nino on the shoulder and giving him a weak smile. “I did tell Ladybug your advice. She said she’d try it and added her thanks.”

Nino straightened, brightening a little in pride at being of help. “She thanked me?”

Marinette smiled genuinely. “Of course she did! She was really touched you were thinking of her. And considering she still didn’t have any idea on how to handle the situation, she definitely appreciated the help.”

“Wait, you told her about us? About your freak out?” Alya frowned.

“I mean, she’d already heard about it but yeah. I wasn’t about to lie to Ladybug.” Marinette’s hand dropped away, shrugging one shoulder up and down. “I was surprised but she wasn’t too upset. She said she should have figured out that a civilian would freak out after having a superhero’s problems dropped in their lap and apologized for giving me trouble.”

“She apologized too?!”

“Well, yeah. She’s Ladybug. She does try to right wrongs, even when she accidentally creates them herself.” Marinette frowned, not liking how suddenly everyone was staring at her intently again.

“How long did she talk to you?” Alya demanded, shaking her again. She still hadn’t let go of one of her arms and reached out to grab the other one.

Marinette frowned. How long would be reasonable. “Ten minutes?” A quick glance had eyes staring at her. Was that not enough time? “No, twenty? Thirty?” Why did they keep staring at her like that. “I don’t know, okay!”

“She spoke to you long enough that you lost track of time?” Alya asked excitedly, practically vibrating now.

Marinette’s frown deepened but nodded. She didn’t like where this was going…

“Girl, this is perfect! You are definitely the perfect spokesperson to talk to Ladybug!”

Marinette gave an exasperated sigh and shook Alya off, rolling her eyes. “One, I have no way to talk to her or contact her. She has to come to me. Two, how would that even work? Am I going to create a Ladybug signal so she knows when it’s okay to drop by? Is she going to create a Marinette signal to let me know when she wants to talk? Not to mention neither would work during the day and would be incredibly dangerous the minute anyone figured out what they meant. Three, this is a terrible idea. I know next to nothing on how to talk to superheroes, given the fact that I have had two melt downs in as many days after having met up with one. And four, what makes you think Ladybug _or_ Chat Noir would go along with this? Not to mention, they’d need to talk this over first and agree to this as a team!”

Officially done with this conversation and sure she’d made excellent points, she turned and began walking away. She wanted to at least eat something before lunch was over.

Alya fell in step besides her, power walking to keep up with the heated pace Marinette was storming easily, a few of their classmates trailing behind them while the rest broke up. It looked like it would take time to convince Marinette and she definitely made good points. A few commented that she really seemed to understand superheroes a lot more than she gave herself credit for.

“But, see, that’s exactly why you’re the perfect person! You think of these things! I’m sure if we could just contact her, you and Ladybug could find a safe way to meet up, without putting you in danger! And you wouldn’t have to go it alone, we’d all help you!”

Marinette stopped short at this and gave her best friend an incredulous stare. She had to be joking. “What.”

“You could bring us her problems, their problems, and we’d help you figure these things out! Like we did last time! Maybe we could even find a way for her to make up with Chat—”

Marinette held up a hand before Alya could finish that thought. As tempting as that idea was… “Ladybug needs to find a way to make up with Chat Noir on her own.” She stated firmly. “Her partnership with Chat is one based on trust and understanding. It’s not our place, yours, mine, or anyone in this class, to interfere in that. They can figure things out without our help.”

Turning, she continued heading back to where she left her lunch bag. She really wanted to eat in peace now.

“Okay, you have a good point there, but hear me out…” Marinette groaned as Alya followed behind her, finally losing the last of the stragglers. Nino and Adrien fell back as well.

“Well, we tried. I’m still glad that Ladybug liked my advice!” Nino smiled, shrugging it off. It had been a fun idea but there were definitely holes in that plan.

Adrien smiled, happy for his friend. “Good for you, Nino! Glad your favorite superhero is listening to you.”

Nino grinned at him. “I’ll admit, I do like Ladybug, I admire and respect her, but no one can beat Chat Noir. He’s one cool cat.”

Adrien grinned, pleased. “Yeah, he is, isn’t he?”

Lunch ended without much drama and Marinette only mildly annoyed as Alya continued to pursue her and push her ‘brilliant’ idea. She had made sound arguments against it, she knew she had! Why couldn’t her best friend see this was a terrible idea?

“If you’re so set on this, why I don’t tell her to come to you with her problems?” Marinette challenged as they walked into the classroom, waving absently at the boys in the front row. There. If she could push this off onto Alya, then she could visit her as Ladybug, politely decline to keep her distance, and finally put an end to this. She was sure Alya would jump at the chance but her bestie surprised her by instantly shaking her head.

“Oh no. I couldn’t do it. The temptation would be too great. I’d press her with questions about the wrong things and she’d never be able to let her guard down around me! I can’t do it!”

Marinette blinked at her and her surprise must have showed on her face because Alya laughed nervously. “Girl, I’m not oblivious to my flaws. I’d want to know more about her way too much, her home life, her friends, family, about her school, likes, dislikes, her identity, _everything_. I’m sure most of the class would.”

Marinette blinked and looked around, definitely surprised at the nods. “But… why?”

The genuine confusion in her question made even Adrien gape at her in open astonishment but this time, it was Nino’s turn to laugh. “See, that’s why we keep saying you’re perfect, Marinette. The rest of us, we see a superhero but you seem to see more than that. What questions did you ask her when she first landed on your roof?”

“I—” Marinette frowned at him, giving him a narrow eyed look like she suspected this was some kind of trap but when he just nodded in encouragement, she let out a huff. She thought back to yesterday. What had she said. “I, well. I just asked her what was wrong, I think? I didn’t really ask her much. She just blurted that out, ranted at me, and I listened mostly.”

She looked up at his satisfied smirk, blinking before she narrowed her eyes again. “What?”

“Again, that’s exactly why we keep telling you. What do you think anyone else in this class would have done?”

Marinette’s brow furrowed, glancing around hesitantly. “The… same… thing?”

Ivan shook his head, Mylene smiled apologetically, Rose looked at her in awe. Kim just grinned and shrugged. None of her classmates looked like they would have backed her up in that statement. “Alix?”

“Don’t look at me. I don’t care about any of this stuff.”

Marinette almost let out a breath in relief. See? At least one other person would have reacted like she said—

“But how would you have reacted if Ladybug suddenly appeared in front of you and had a panic attack about her parents being superheroes?” Alya prompted.

Alix crossed her arms in front of herself defensively. “I would have probably thought she was going crazy.”

Marinette winced and Alya gave Alix a look. The petite girl rolled her eyes and huffed, looking skyward. “Okay, okay, fine. And then I probably would have asked why she wasn’t more excited. Having superhero parents sounds awesome. I would have wanted to know about their superhero powers, what they were like, what they used to do, all of that stuff. I don’t see why it’s such a big deal.”

Marinette openly gaped at her. She didn’t see why it was such a big deal? Seriously?!

“Of course it was a big deal!” Marinette instantly defended hotly. “Sure, it mind sound cool at first, parents who have powers and all, but think about what that means. That means her parents were lying to her all this time. How long? Since she was a baby? A little girl? Her whole life? What else had they hidden from her?” Alix winced, having not thought about that, but Alya crossed her arms and looked smug, nodding her head. “And of course I didn’t ask her more questions. What kind of powers her parents had? She was still trying to wrap her head around all these sudden changes in her world! It would have been insensitive of anyone to ask her to explain anything while she was still trying to process this! That would be like becoming an akuma and someone asking the minute you were changed back what it was like and if you always went crazy like that and would you want those kinds of powers again! There are just some lines you don’t cross.”

“And that’s exactly why it should be you helping Ladybug out.” Alya crowed, pleased. Marinette winced, realizing she’d just walked herself into that. “The rest of us are thinking about how cool it would be to meet a superhero, to talk to one, but you’re seeing both the superhero and the person behind it. It’s not that we’re not capable of seeing both sides, just that we haven’t caught up to the point you’re at yet.”

Weakly, Marinette tried one more time. “I’m not at any point, Alya. Really. I’m no different from anyone else in this class when it comes to Ladybug and Chat Noir…”

Alya clearly didn’t believe her, giving her a look. Sighing in defeat, Marinette gave up trying to convince her and the rest of the class of anything different. It seemed like today was a lost cause in that regard. She’d have to watch her steps more carefully from now on, so she didn’t accidentally do anything else to accidentally give herself away. “Let’s just drop it, okay?”

Alya didn’t get a chance to respond before the teacher came in and asked the class to be seated. Marinette ignored the look she sent her way that clearly showed this wasn’t over, not by a long shot. She held back another sigh, looking forward as the bell rang and class began. It was going to be a long day, she was sure of it. Unfortunately, every chance she got, Alya seemed determined to prove her right. During breaks, the few times the teachers didn’t keep a constant eye on them, she’d be leaning over, trying to convince Marinette that this was clearly the perfect plan to get to know and help the heroes of Paris. By the end of the day, Marinette had had enough.

“You know what, I’ll make you a deal!” Marinette snapped, grabbing her bag. “If Ladybug and Chat Noir can make up by the end of today, then I’ll talk to her! If not, we’ll just let them work things out on their own. It’s none of our business, anyway.”

“You’re on!” Alya cried, looking pleased that she’d worn her friend down.

Marinette nodded and headed for the stairs. Finally, she could get some peace and quiet about this. She’d just make up with Chat Noir today, then point out that Ladybug hadn’t visited her afterwards. If Ladybug didn’t visit her again, no matter how convinced they were that this work, then they couldn’t fault her for something that was ‘out of her control’, right? It was worth a try, at least. She went home, sure her plan would work. She greeted her parents, heading up to her room to get some homework done before she went out to find Chat Noir and apologize for her melt down yesterday.

What she _wasn’t_ counting on, however, was an hour after she started, to hear tapping. She frowned, slowly coming out of her homework induced comatose state to look around her room in confusion. Her trap door was still closed and her parents weren’t likely to knock anyway. Was it a bird? She looked towards her windows but nothing. Glancing up at her skylight, her eyes widened as she blatantly stared at the catty grin plastered on the face looking back at her.

What in the world was Chat Noir doing here?!

With a gasp and much quicker than she’d like to admit, although with all the grace of a flailing chicken, she scrambled to open the skylight. He continued to smirk at her as she gasped. “Chat Noir? It’s really — what are you doing here? Oh wow. Uh, come in, I guess? Is something the matter?”

She pulled back, allowing him into her room without thought. He dropped down gracefully. Belatedly, she noticed something in his hand. She leaned forward curiously, to get a better look, before gasping. She pointed a trembling finger at the sketchbook in his hands. “Why do you have _that?!”_

His gaze sharpened on her, looking speculative, even as his grip tightened on it. “You know what this is?”

“I, er—” She hung her head in shame and lied to her partner. “I gave it to Ladybug!” She blurted out, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. “She—she wanted to sketch some designs in it. I didn’t ask what kind.”

“Ah, right. I did hear you were good friends with my Lady.”

She blushed, unused to hearing him call her so affectionately outside of the suit and he chuckled at her reaction, leaning in close. “So, Princess, anything you want to tell a curious cat?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She leaned back, still flustered, and looked away. “And don’t they have an expression about curiosity and cats?”

“Yes but I’m rather fond of satisfaction myself.” He retorted quickly, still smirking.

Something about how he said it made her feel even more flustered and embarrassed, though she very much doubted he meant it that way. It wasn’t so much the tone he’s said it in, which was playful, but the words themselves that made her whole body flush. “Y-you still haven’t told me why you’re here.”

He gave her a fond smile, holding out the sketchbook to her. “I heard you were a friend of my Lady. I was hoping you could pass this along for me, to her.”

Marinette reached out a hand but surprised him by pushing the sketchbook back towards him. She frowned, no, almost _pouted_ as she looked up at him through her lashes. “Ladybug is your partner. It would mean more for it to come from you.”

He gave her a wry smile. “I’m not sure about that.”

She frowned, her hand resting on his clawed one. Absently, she swiped her thumb over the back of it, as if to comfort him. “Why do you say that?”

“I think you already know why.”

She continued to frown but slowly shook her head, looking confused and frustrated. “No, I don’t.”

“She came to you yesterday. She told you that we got in a fight.” His smile tightened painfully. It hurt, more than he was willing to admit, that Ladybug trusted Marinette more than him.

Her expression cleared and her eyes softened. She understood. Her grip tightened on his hand for a minute, squeezing it, as she gave him an encouraging smile. “Chat Noir.”

Something about the way she said it made him want to shiver. It felt right, somehow. Like she knew him. “Yes?”

“How much do you tell Ladybug? Really tell her, I mean.”

He frowned in answer. “I tell her everything. I’d tell her everything that she’d let me and more but she doesn’t want to know.”

“So you told her about how we met?”

He stiffened but Marinette just continued to smile at him with kind eyes. Her expression was understanding, almost tender, as she regarded him. She seemed to know his answer without him responding but she continued on, regardless. “I’m sure you told her all about that day, running along the rooves of Paris, the sunset against your side. Do you remember?”

“How could I forget?” The words were out before he had a chance to stop them. He felt a small blush creep along his cheeks but it was the truth. It had been one of the few times he’d been around Marinette and she’d been completely at ease around him. A little fluster at first but she’d been honest, genuine, lively and animated without stuttering. He was fond of all the different sides he saw of his friend but it had been refreshing to have a real conversation with her and to learn more about her. It had taken all his will power to not take advantage of powers and visit her again. It wasn’t fair to his friend to learn about her, get close to her, like this.

However, Marinette just seemed please that Chat Noir remembered that day, remembered her. She gave his hand another reassuring squeeze. “See? Don’t hold it against Ladybug that she sometimes doesn’t know how to bring everything to you. Sometimes, it’s hard to open up and admit out loud what’s going on, much less to one of your very best friends.”

Something loosened in his chest and it felt like he could breathe again. Suddenly, it made sense why Ladybug would want to come to Marinette, would want to talk to her like this. She understood them, somehow, someway. She got it, got where they were coming from, and she didn’t judge them for being superheroes, for their struggles or when they missed each other. She just quietly stood by and offered them what help she could give.

“Can I… Is it alright if I come again?” He asked shyly.

Her eyes widened, clearly taken aback by this. He remembered belatedly that she didn’t know he was in her class. Ladybug probably wouldn’t have shared that, not something that might give his identity away. He was half convinced that was part of the reason why she’d run away yesterday. He had given her a huge clue to his identity, even if it hadn’t been on purpose. He was curious why Plagg hadn’t chewed him out but the kwami had merely replied that if he crashed and burned from being stupid, that was his business and he wasn’t getting involved in the messy business of reveals. It was such a typical response, he wasn’t even surprised by it.

“You, you want to come here?” She squeaked out, still staring at him wide eyed.

He nodded quickly.

“Why?!” Her voice got even higher in shock.

“You’re a friend of Ladybug and I can see you are a good friend to have. I’d like to talk to you, share my problems again. If that’s okay?”

She didn’t immediately turn him down, just stared at him bug eyed. “My class wants to know more about you!” She suddenly blurted out, then covered her mouth with an ‘eep’. Looks like her perchance for blurting out extended beyond the classroom. He gave a wary chuckle.

“I bet.” He leaned back, posing for a minute. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to get to know Chat Noir better?”

She squeaked again, not sure what to make of the fact that _Chat Noir_ , her partner, was _posing for her_ and _teasing her_ about her classmates.

He sat forward again. “Marinette?”

“I, I meant. They, uh, they want you guys to swing by and talk to me, then bring your problems to them so they can help puzzle them out.” She got out, still covering her mouth. He had to admit, she was very honest.

“And I have a bad habit of blurting things out in front of my classmates when I’m nervous or stressed or freaking out!”

 _Very_ honest. He grinned, pleased. Yes, he was starting liking this idea a whole lot more. He pretended to give it some consideration, even putting his fist to his chin and closing his eyes for a moment, before looking at her and grinning again.

“I don’t see a problem with that.”

Her eyes got impossibly wide. “You, you don’t?”

“Nope! So long as you promise not to divulge any information that might lead to my identity being exposed, I don’t see a problem with you and your classmates doing your best to help me.” A thought occurred to him as he remembered one of Marinette’s earlier counter arguments against this. “I mean, I’d have to talk to Ladybug first, to make sure this is okay, but with her swinging by to see you, I don’t see how she’d have a problem against it.”

Welp. There went one of Marinette’s silent back up plans she’d come up with during class. Looks like Chat Noir wasn’t as against this as she’d hoped he’d be. In fact, he was all for it. What was she supposed to do? She didn’t have the heart to tell him no. If he really needed her help, she would always be there for her partner, no matter what form he needed her. Slowly, she nodded. He went to hold the sketchbook out to her again but she quickly shook her head, hands darting out.

“No, you keep it! Like I said, _you’re_ her partner. I promise, it’ll mean a whole lot more coming from you than it will from me. Besides, I can’t guarantee when I’ll see her again. These last two days might have been a two day thing, you know?”

He gave her an easy grin. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I think you’re very easy to talk to, Marinette. I’m sure Ladybug will be back.”

She just stared at him in awe, touched. Her kitty loved talking to her, it seems, no matter what form. Trust him to find her in civilian form, not realize it, and still be drawn to her. Reluctantly, she glanced down at her trap door and bit her lips. Well, she had promised to make up with Chat Noir… And she really did want to be on good terms with him. It didn’t hurt that this was one of the conditions to hear her father’s stories tonight. Surely her parents wouldn’t mind if she went out for a little bit to fulfill her expectations? Besides, it wasn’t like she’d be able to get any more homework done with all these thoughts, questions and ideas, floating around in her head. She glanced back at Chat through her lashes, not realizing the reason he started was the very attractive picture she presented, something he had only vaguely noticed before and was now very blatantly aware of.

“Why don’t you go, Chat?”

When he looked hurt, she leaned forward, both hands squeezing his around the sketchbook. “You need to go make up with Ladybug, right? You should go find her, make up with her quickly. I’m sure the two of you have a lot to talk about, to catch up on.” She gave him an encouraging smile and nodded. “I’m sure it’ll be okay. Alright? Talk to her. About everything. She’ll listen, I’m sure.”

He frowned, not wanting to leave quite yet, but she had a point. He needed to make up with Ladybug. He nodded and reached forward with his free hand, absently tucking some hair out of her face. “Yes. It’s always a knight’s displeasure to at odds with his Lady. I really should talk to my Lady but then I’ll be back. Alright, Princess?”

He’d called her that again. Was he _trying_ to tease her? If so, it was definitely working. She hadn’t been this flustered since the last time Adrien got too close to her and she got it in her head he was low key flirting with her. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? The thought of Adrien or Chat Noir flirting with her as Marinette was just so out there, it wasn’t worth contemplating for more than a second, no matter how nice a fantasy that made. He wasn’t waiting for her response, though. Chat hoisted himself out the sky light, still clutching the sketchbook in one hand, and bounded away. She waited until she was sure he was gone before she let out a breath. That was… wow. She didn’t even know where to begin when it came to the last few minutes of their interaction.

Tikki flew up to her, giving her a curious look but didn’t anything in regards to Chat’s sudden appearance or his request to come again. Her kwami was trying to hold true to her earlier statement. Unfortunately, there was no going back to how things were in the past. They would just have to find a way to work around the new reality of things. And there was a good possibility that might include Chat Noir suddenly wanting to come around. She would trust Marinette to figure out a way to handle this, to be there for her partner without revealing herself.

“Chat Noir is calling.” She said after a moment.

Marinette nodded and climbed out the skylight herself. “Tikki, spots on!”

Seconds later, freshly transformed, she opened her compact to answer the call. She didn’t bother to hide the fact that she was on Marinette’s balcony, although she didn’t try to make it blatantly obvious either. If everyone was going to assume that Ladybug would keep showing up at Marinette’s, she saw no reason to hide it. Especially because apparently, Chat Noir was among those making that assumption.

He lit up the minute she answered, afraid for a moment she might. “My Lady!”

“Hello, Chaton.” She replied with a smile. “Where are you? I have some things I wanted to say to you.”

“And I, you, my Lady. I went back to the roof you were sketching at so happily yesterday. I brought your sketchbook with me.” He held up the sketchbook, waving it back and forth in front of his baton to give her a clear view. As if she wouldn’t recognize it or would think he brought a different one. She trusted him at his word.

“Thank you, Chaton. I’ll be there in just a moment.” Ending the call, she swung her yo-yo and vaulted away, swinging through the streets of Paris to go meet up with her kitty.

A few minutes later, she landed on the roof, standing across from Chat. Suddenly nervous, she gave him a hesitant smile and a little wave. He, on the other hand, seemed much more sure of himself, bounding over to her. At least his talk with Marinette seemed to have a good effect on him. “My Lady! So glad you could join me this afternoon.” He greeted, giving her an extravagant bow even as he continued to hold her sketchbook.

She smiled fondly at him, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. It was cute, how much he doted on her, how he adored her. She didn’t hate the attention and if he could just learn to control the timing better, like now, she’d appreciate it a whole lot more. “So glad to be here, my knight in shining kitty armor.”

He looked up, practically beaming at the praise. She gulped, suddenly nervous again, but steeled herself for what must be done. She took a step forward, holding out her hands in front of her in a gesture of peace. She should be the one to extend the olive branch first. “Look, Chat, about yesterday. I—”

“No need for words, my Lady. I completely understand.” He replied with a smile, bringing one to her lips as well. She lightly shook her head in response, relaxing.

“There might be no need but they are certainly deserved, Chaton. I shouldn’t have run out on you like that. I’ve been… having a rough time lately and I’ve been trying to deal with it on my own. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been going as planned, leaving me with accidentally spilling my problems, so to speak, on a civilian. I should have come to you, I just—didn’t know how to talk about this. About any of this.”

He beamed, even happier now that Ladybug was opening up to him. He also took a step forward, leaving them a little less than a foot apart. “I understand, my Lady. I truly do.” His face lit up with happiness as he shared more. “I visited her myself, by the way. Marinette. I can see why you like talking to her!”

She smiled up at him, pleased he was still so happy about their little talk earlier. “Oh?”

“Yes! I, er—” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously for a moment. “I’d actually visited her once before. On accident, like you did. She called out to me and it seemed rude to ignore her. She was sweet and kind, let me talk about my problems for a bit before helping me get my mind off things. I really enjoyed it.”

“Why didn’t you go back?” Ladybug asked curiously and he flushed.

“Because, like I mentioned yesterday, she’s in my class. At school. It didn’t seem fair, to get to know her like that when we could be friends in class.”

“And now?”

“Now, I want to get to know her, in and out of the mask. I think she could really help me. Help us!” He brightened again, speaking to her earnestly. “Marinette and her class want to talk to us, help us with our problems!”

“All at once? I think that might be a little overwhelming, Chat.” Ladybug teased.

“No, no! We would each talk to Marinette and anything she can’t help us with, she’d tell her classmates and they’d all put their heads together to come up with a solution.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” She tilted her head, studying him carefully, but didn’t immediately dismiss the possibility like he assumed she would. He’d been ready to argue with her, especially on Marinette’s behalf, but she was honestly giving his opinion weight and consideration.

“I don’t know about wise but what could it hurt?”

“They could find out about our secret identities.”

“Marinette wouldn’t let that happen.” Chat said with so much conviction, for a moment Ladybug’s eyes widened. He was about to argue this point when her eyes softened and she gave him a tender smile.

“Yes, I do believe you’re right on that point. How do you know that someone wouldn’t piece it together by clues she might mistakenly give them. She can’t possibly know what to keep secret and what is okay to share. She’d have to guess and do the best she could.”

“Marinette’s smart. I’m sure she could do it. She’s brilliant and funny and brave and I think she has what it takes to hide our secrets. And if they managed to piece together who we were anyway…” He frowned. He didn’t have an answer to that.

“You said you’re in the same class as her, right?”

He nodded slowly. “Do you trust them.”

He looked up abruptly, staring at Ladybug. She repeated her question, clarifying. “Your classmates. Do you trust them to do what’s in our best interests?”

“Yes, my Lady. I don’t think they have malicious intent. They seem like they genuinely want to help us, every single one.”

“And if Marinette becomes a target for Hawkmoth because we’ve become to close to her, what then?”

He blanched, having not thought of that. Honestly, he hated the idea of putting any of his classmates in danger, especially one of his friends. However…

“Everyone in Paris is already a potential target. She’s been singled out a few times now and I’ve done my best to get her out of the situation. We’ll just have to continue doing that in the future.”

She nodded slowly. “I’m still not convinced this is the best idea but I suppose we can discuss it more. Is that all you wanted to address? Nothing else you wanted to share, Chaton?” Her teasing smile was back and he felt one spread across his lips in return.

“Well, I _did_ find a rather suspicious sketchbook the last time I was here. I suppose I could show you that.” He hummed, holding out the sketchbook to her.

“Oh really? You don’t say.” She reached for it with a smile, only to raise her eyebrow as he pulled it away at the last minute.

“Yes. I was thinking we could go over it together?”

Her smile grew and she nodded, reaching out again. This time, he let her take it from his hands and she carefully opened it. She stared down at the picture for a moment, tracing the imagine with her gloved finger in a similar manner to how Adrien had yesterday, before looking up at him. She gestured for him to sit and she came, sitting down beside him.

“This is a hero named Bourdon.”

“Bourdon?” Chat tasted the foreign name on his lips, peering down at the figure she’d sketched with interest now. “Bumblebee?”

She nodded. “My father. I recently found out my parents were superheroes. Or rather, they’d been gifted with miraculous like we were.” She bit her lip, hesitating, before hesitantly continuing on. “I found out because one of them witnessed my transformation.”

He looked up, eyes wide. “That’s why you were off during the battle! You were freaking out over being found out!”

She nodded, still biting her lip, as she looked up at him with pained eyes. “I never expected it to happen like that, and especially not for my—for one of my parents to see me. I didn’t have time to say anything, either, to react. I had an akuma to fight.”

“What happened when you got home?” He asked in a hushed whisper.

“I cried. A lot. I hugged them tight and I bawled my eyes out. It was scary, terrifying, to know that someone else knew who I was inside the mask. That it was someone I love, someone I care about, it made it even more terrifying. What would I do if they came after me in a fight? As much as they’d worry for me, I’d worry for them ten times more. It’s my job to protect Paris and I can’t make exceptions, can’t prioritize anyone, no matter how much I want to. It’s hard enough trying to do that now but for someone to know who I am and know that I might have to abandon them in a battle—”

She sucked in a deep breath and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, letting her lean on him. No wonder she was freaking out so much. Now he was ten times more glad that she’d reached out to Marinate, at least, even if she hadn’t talked to him first. “And then what happened?”

“And then I tried talking to them about it. Only to realize, they’d known all along, and when they mentioned kwamis—”

“They knew about kwamis?!” He cried out.

She nodded in his shoulder. “Yes. It was just too much. I couldn’t handle it.”

“So you transformed and left and ran into Marinette.” He filled in for her. She nodded again, glad she didn’t have to come up with the lies herself. It made it easier, somehow, letting him fill in the dots for himself. “Did it help? Talking to her?”

Ladybug sighed and went with a half truth. “It did and it didn’t. Marinette wasn’t any more prepared for the news than I was. I think she was nearly as panicked as I was when I found out. And she didn’t have any more idea than I did on how to handle it. When I realized how upset she was… I tried to leave it at that but she made me promise to come back the next day. I think she hoped to have a solution for me by then and amazingly, the next day she did. Even if it _did_ come from a classmate.”

Chat Noir let out a wary chuckle. “That must have been a shock.”

“I’d have been more shocked if she wasn’t as panicked by the information as she was. It’s not like anyone teaches us, any of us, how to handle these sorts of situations. She did the very best she could, under the circumstances.” And really, she _had_ done the best she could to handle the situation. It might not have been ideal but she’d tried her hardest and when she messed up, she’d done her best to repair things and cover up her identity.

“She’s a very capable young woman.” Chat Noir replied with obvious pride in his voice.

Ladybug smiled and looked up at him. “Do you know her well? In your civilian form?” It was a first, her asking about his regular life, and she could see from his shocked expression, he wasn’t sure what to make of this. She was genuinely curious, though.

“We’re friends. Or, well, I like to think of us as friends.” Sometimes he wasn’t sure, with how often she could get flustered around him, but he was sure she didn’t hate him anymore. She wouldn’t have anything to do with him if she still did. He remembers very well the sting of her cold shoulder. Maybe she was just embarrassed to have blamed him for something he didn’t do? She was kind hearted enough that that sort of thing would embarrass her. Hopefully, with time that awkwardness would fade. In fact, it seemed to be as the months went by. He could only hope that one day, she’d be completely comfortable around him.

“I’m sure she thinks of you the same way. She’s a nice girl.” Ladybug responded, giving his shoulder a squeeze as she pulled away. He hid his disappointment as she turned back to her sketchbook.

“I certainly hope so. Now, you said his name is Bourdon?”

“Yes, that’s my Papa. I’m learning about him and my Maman as miraculous users. Yesterday, I came out here to draw what I think they might have looked like in their other forms when you suddenly surprised me.”

He laughed. “Sorry about that. You were so into drawing that you didn’t hear me at all.” He leaned over her shoulder this time, studying the drawing with interest. “Would you mind telling me about your ideas?”

For more than an hour, the two sat and talked together, chatting about her design and then talking about the different ways he could have looked as well. Ladybug listened with interest to everything Chat had to say, making notes of his ideas and even starting rough sketches of some of his suggestions. However, they couldn’t stay there too long and soon enough, they had to part. Ladybug stood, holding out her fist for him to bump. “It was good to chat with you like this, Chaton. We should do it again, sometime.”

“I look forward to it, my Lady.”

She paused at the ledge, debating, before looking over her shoulder at him. She gave him a wry smile. “If you really need to talk to her, I’m sure Marinette wouldn’t mind helping you out again. You should maybe come up with a way to schedule your talks, however, or at least a way to let her know you’re coming over, so you don’t accidentally get found out if she’s having friends over or something.”

He beamed at her, nodding. “We’ll come up with something. Together. And then I’ll let you know, my Lady.”

“I look forward to it, Chaton.” And with that, she swung away. He sighed, staring after her. He could visit Marinette later. Tonight? Tomorrow? It didn’t matter. For now, he was heading home to contemplate how wonderful and amazing his Lady really was.

Swinging home, Marinette released her transformation and climbed down into her room. She was only slightly surprised to find her parents waiting for her in her room. Both were smiling at her, so she assumed they weren’t _too_ mad about her impromptu trip out. And she _had_ left a note on her computer screen to let them know where she’d gone and why. Or, well, not _where_ exactly but definitely why. She’d completed the first part of her condition to learn about tonight story, though, successfully and she was glad for it. She felt stronger in her partnership with Chat Noir, surer of them as a team and as friends.

“We’re having dinner soon. Come down stairs and you can tell us how it went.” Sabine told her with a smile.

“And then you can tell us about your day in school today.” Tom added with a wink.

Marinette withheld a groan. She’d been hoping that he might forget his second condition. For her to tell them what was going on in school and how she was handling her double life. Part of it was to help her learn how to manage and navigate having two identities, she knew, but it was still embarrassing to discuss this with her parents.

With a sigh, she followed them downstairs. She had agreed to their terms and it was only fair that she see them out to their finish. Over the course of dinner, she told them about meeting with Chat Noir and a bit of what they talked about. Soon enough, however, the conversation turned to her day at school and how she was handling her dual identities. With a groan, she told them all of what happened, of her classmates electing _her_ to be the one to talk to Ladybug and help her with her problems, much to her parents's amusement. She talked about them wanting to Chat Noir and Ladybug, of wanting her to bring the problems she couldn’t solve on her own to them, and then of Chat Noir coming to visit her and agreeing with them. She talked about meeting with Chat Noir again, this time of their talk on whether this was a wise idea. With a dramatic sigh, she ran her hands through her hair and looked at both her parents expectantly. “Well? It’s crazy, right? It’s a terrible idea, I shouldn’t do it, I should tell them all no.”

Sabine hummed but didn’t respond, clearing away the dishes. Tom, on the other hand, smiled at her. “It’s up to you, mon coeur.”

Marinette groaned again and let her head thump on the dinner table. “You guys are no help…”

“Regardless, I think you did very well for yourself.”

Marinette twitched and suddenly sat up, realizing what he was saying. “You mean…?”

He nodded. She was a little old for it, but… “Would you like to hear a bedtime story?”

“About Spain and Portugal?”

He grinned at his beloved daughter, nodding. “About Spain and Portugal.”

“I would love to.”

After helping clean up, Marinette went to her room, getting ready for bed. She brushed her teeth, changed into her pajamas, and was debating whether or not her father would come up or she’d go down to him when she heard a knock on her trap door. Scrambling down, she ran to it, not noticing the figure the quickly hid away from her skylight, the tapping there stopping abruptly. “Papa!”

“Are you ready for bed, mon petit?”

“Yes!” She spoke excitedly. “Will you tell me now? The first story?”

Chat peered curiously over the edge of the skylight. He was just going to wait until her father left before talking to Marinette real quick, to let her know that Ladybug had given her okay, but it seemed that her father would stay for a bit. What did she mean by that, he wondered. The first story?

“I went to a province in Spain called Girona first. There is a legend in that town, of a young, selfless young man. During a time when they were in the middle of a plague and many people were quarantined, _el Tarlà_ appeared. He would perform acrobatic acts to distract the people and make them smile, laugh. During that time, he fell in love with a beautiful young woman.” He tapped Marinette on the nose, making her smile, one that grew wider with his next words. “She was the daughter of a pastry chef. Worried that her father might disapprove of him, he would sneak in to see her and spend time with her. One day, he was discovered when the man walked in carrying an open bag of flour. The flour puffed into the air and it tickled his nose, making him sneeze. The sound of his sneeze was _**“Xui!”**_ and to make up for both startling and deceiving the baker, _el Tarlà_ promised not only to marry his daughter but to give him a very special recipe. It was a pastry which he named _**Xuixo**_ , after the sneeze that led to his discovery.”

Marinette giggled. It seemed like a silly story to her, one she saw no point in telling but that made her smile anyway. She didn’t see how an old legend would have anything to do with her father’s travels. Tom sat on the bed with her. “In Spain, I learned the recipe on how to make Xuixo, but after hearing that story, I also remembering thinking how important it is to help others, even when you receive nothing in return. _El Tarlà_ was promised nothing in return for his acrobats. He did so just to make the people smile. That is part of being a hero, Marinette. Not just helping people with your actions but giving them a reason to smile when they see you.”

They spoke quietly a little longer, of his travels throughout Spain and Portugal, but Marinette had a feeling that the main thing he wanted her to take away from the story was about being selfless and making people smile, like _El Tarlà_. She learned that in Portugal, he learned the recipe of something called Pasteis de Nata, which he promised to make for her soon. Listening to him talk, she grew sleepy and eventually nodded off. Tom tucked her in and quietly headed back down stairs. Neither noticed that as Marinette turned over in her bed, two glowing green eyes peered down at her thoughtfully for a moment or when a dark figure bounded away into the night. There would be time for questions in the morning, for reluctantly agreeing to at least give it a try when it came to talking to Chat Noir and Ladybug, and for convincing her classmates that no, she wasn’t up to the task of bringing them superhero problems on a regular basis. And in the morning, there would be time to learn about what she had to do to earn the next story from her father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> El Tarlà is an actual legend that surrounds the popular pastries of Girona, Spain. I took tiny liberties with it but mostly remained true to the original legend, or what I could find of it. For recipes on how to make the two pastries here, follow the links below.
> 
> I won't expand on every story of all the countries Tom went to, since he backpacked across Euroasia and that's a lot of countries, but I will give tiny snippets of what he learned while he was traveling and how that shaped him into the person he is today.
> 
> https://www.shbarcelona.com/blog/en/traditional-catalan-recipes-xuixos/
> 
> https://leitesculinaria.com/7759/recipes-pasteis-de-nata.html


	4. Chapter 3: Change

Adrien released his transformation, releasing a soft sigh underneath his breath. “Did you see that, Plagg?”

“Hmm.” The kwami replied with an uninterested hum.

“Marinette’s asked her parents to help her understand superheroes better. She’s working so hard to help us.” He sighed, not realizing how love sick he sounded in that moment. Plagg rolled his eyes and reframed from gagging.

“Don’t care, kid. Just tell me where my cheese is, I think I’m going to starve at this rate. You ran my ragged today, going back and forth between your two girls.”

Adrien rolled his eyes at that. “Look inside my bag, I’m sure I have something left over. Not even _you_ could be pig enough to have gone through all of that yet.”

“Never underestimate my eating abilities.” Plagg cackled, darting into his bag to find that, sure enough, there was some left over cheese.

Adrien stared off thoughtfully into space, ignoring the kwami for the moment. He was replaying the past two days over in his mind. Not just his interactions with Ladybug but those with Marinette as well. Marinette, who was determined to help them even though she didn’t feel qualified at all. He had to find a way to help her, to change her mind. Talking to her had been like lifting a weight off his chest. He liked that feeling. She got him, got Ladybug, and made it feel like everything would be alright if he just _talked things out_ with his lady. Perhaps the most amazing thing was that by following her advice, he’d made up with Ladybug and they’d _talked_ , really talked. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt closer to his lady, more connected. With Marinette helping them, guiding them, he was sure they could work together to reach a better connected partnership. And if he was being completely honest with himself, he wanted to get to know her better this way, like he told Ladybug. Both inside and outside the mask, he wanted to be closer to his classmate, his friend. With a small smirk, he added a new nickname. His _Princess._

“So, what’re you going to do?” Plagg asked, munching on the last few pieces of his cheese.

“Do?” Adrien replied absently.

“About tomorrow.”

“What about tomorrow?” Adrien frowned, looking at his kwami.

Plagg rolled his eyes and popped in the very last piece. “Kid. Part of the problem with reveals and hidden identities is keeping what you learn as a superhero secret. How’re you going to approach your little girlfriend in school tomorrow, without giving away what you know?”

Right. He couldn’t let on that he knew anything that only Chat Noir would know. He couldn’t talk to her about meeting with her, had to hope she would bring it up. His heart swelled a little at the thought. He really hoped she’d bring it up. It was okay if she kept his secrets to herself or if she shared them with the class. It wasn’t like he really cared either way. Hiding his identity had never been a top priority, no matter Plagg’s insistence in the beginning or Ladybug’s stubbornness. If it could bring him closer to his lady love, he didn’t care who knew he was Chat Noir. Fame was nothing new to him. Neither were interviews or fans. Nor was hate mail or stalking or attacks on him simply because he was a well known face. Hawkmoth attacking him at home wouldn’t be an issue, he was sure. Celebrities didn’t exactly have it easy and as a famous model, Adrien fell under that category. What could Hawkmoth do that was worse than what he was already used to, really?

It wasn’t like people didn’t already steal his stuff. It went from creepy to beyond confusing. He’d had people steal the towels he used at photoshoots or sold off make up kits that had been used on his face once, for a promotional poster. He’d even had an apple stolen, with a few bites taken out of it, only for it to be sold to his fan base. Not to mention the people who would grab on to him randomly and steal his jewelry, like necklaces, bracelets, that sort of thing. He’d even had a fan or two try to steal his ring since he gained his miraculous. It was a rare thing but something he was very used to and none of Hawkmoth’s attempts would likely be more successful than those fans.

“Kid.”

Adrien ignored him and Plagg rolled his eyes, darting in front of his face.

“Oi. Kid.”

Adrien blinked at his kwami and raised an eyebrow, smirking, looking incredibly like Chat Noir without the mask in that moment. Plagg gave an exaggerated sigh.

“As fun as I’m sure it would be to watch you contemplate your little girlfriend all night long, you should probably get some sleep.”

“You know, you really should stop calling her that. She’s not my girlfriend.”

Plagg rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, watching as Adrien went about getting ready for bed. “Yeah, yeah. You keep saying that. But of all your friends, I don’t see you hopping over to, say, Nino’s to spy on him late at night.”

Adrien’s eyes suddenly lit up and he looked at Plagg, excited. The cat kwami groaned. “No. _No._ Not tonight. You can go spy on your friends some other night. You have done quite enough tonight. Now go to sleep.”

Morning seemed to come early for the blond, who woke up refreshed and eager for the new day. He was excited to see Marinette, to try to talk to her, to hear about her opinions on Chat Noir. Surely now she wouldn’t have any reason to object, right? He would come over a million times and one if that’s what it took for her to realize how much she could help him and his Lady. She could do this, he was sure of it, and really, he hadn’t thought about it until the others pointed it out in class, but she really did seem to think about what was best for the heroes of Paris first and foremost. They could trust her with their secrets. She would do anything she could to help them. Everything would be alright, he was sure of it.

Meanwhile, Marinette slept in way too late and freaked when she saw her phone said that school started in five minutes. There was no way she’d get there on time but as she raced around her room getting ready, she saw no reason not to try her hardest. Darting down the stairs with all the stealth of an stampeding elephant, she waved a breathless goodbye to both her parents and was out the front door of the bakery a second later. She raced down the side walk, ignoring traffic rules for once in her life, and weaving in between the car traffic. It wasn’t too bad this morning and only one car honked at her. Her pounding hard in her chest, so much it almost hurt, she ran up the stairs and screeched to a halt in front of the door of her class. She took a deep, calming breath, not realizing the squeak of her shoes as she came to a stop had already announced her presence.

Inside the classroom, Miss Bustier glanced at the door for a moment, then sighed, shaking her head. She turned back to the class, continuing roll call as the door cracked open and her constantly truant student crawled into class. She frowned, calling out name after name before finally looking up and making eye contact with Marinette. “And Miss Dupin-Cheng, thank you for joining us.”

Marinette winced but gave her a sheepish smile. Roll call done, her teacher turned to the board in order to begin the first lesson of the day. Sagging in her seat, Marinette let out a quiet breath of relief. Just barely made it. She stiffened as she sensed more than saw Alya shifting closer. Damn. Damn _damn damn **damn**_. She completely forgot she’d have to fed off classmates and one very invested best friend when it came to Ladybug and any ‘help’ she could provide her and her feline companion. With a stifled groan, she banged her head on the desk as quietly as she could. Why her?

Adrien, on the other hand, couldn’t wait. He was vibrating with excitement, practically bouncing in his seat, wanting to turn around so bad. He wanted to talk to her, question her. What did she think about Chat Noir showing up on her balcony? Was she surprised? She had certainly _seemed_ surprised yesterday. Was a good surprise, though? The memory of her gently reassuring him made his heart swell a bit. This was his chance! His excitable classmate had a hard time fully letting go around him but this could be their chance to connect better outside the mask. Nino shot him an odd look and Adrien gave him his best innocent smile. It didn’t look like he was fully buying it but he didn’t call him on it. The minute the bell rang for break, he was turning around eagerly in his seat, waiting to hear what Marinette had to say.

“So?” Alya immediately prompted, pouncing on the shorter girl.

Marinette gave her a tired look and raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. Today, she wasn’t the stuttering mess she’d been the past two days. Today, she was showing a different side to her. This was her, full sass force coming out, and she was ready for Alya this time. When Alya slammed down her hands on the desk, with a frustrated shout of _“Girl!”_ Marinette merely rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“Why yes, Alya, I slept great last night. Thanks for asking." As Alya got more impatient, Marinette pulled one hand out and made a big show of looking at her nails. Purposely trying to get under her skin. "My morning? It was pretty hectic, I barely made it to school today and I don't know how I'm going to explain oversleeping yet again to the principal."

"Marinette." Alya began again in a warning tone.

Marinette rolled her eyes and crossed her arms again. "Oh, I see how it is. That's all I am to you now, isn't it? A connection to Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Alya immediately pounced on that. "Chat Noir?! I thought you said he hadn't visited you in months."

Marinette held up a finger, causing her best friend to fall silent. "What was it we agreed upon yesterday?"

Alya side eyed her curiously before taking a deep breath. "That if Ladybug and Chat Noir made up, you would agree to talk to Ladybug."

Marinette nodded, looking far too pleased with herself. "And that would require one thing, wouldn't it?"

Alya narrowed her eyes at her. "Oh? What are you holding back?"

"The fact that Ladybug did not, in any way, visit me yesterday." Marinette revealed smugly.

Alya wilted a little while Adrien just gaped at Marinette in shock. Ladybug hadn't visited her? But hadn't she…? Well, true, she had only said that she would keep what he said in mind and that they would talk more later. She hadn't once expressly agreed to chat with Marinette. Somehow, shrinking on himself a little, that was all the more heartbreaking. His mouth slowly closed and he gulped, eyes dropping to his lap. He didn't realize that Marinette noticed or the small frown that marred her face for a moment as she took in his expression. He was caught up in the idea that Ladybug might not trust Marinette to willingly open up to her to think about what else had happened yesterday.

With a sigh, Marinette reluctantly decided to reveal what else had happened yesterday. She hated seeing Adrien so disappointed (crushed, really) but she really couldn't let this get wrapped around her any more. Marinette and Ladybug had to remain separate.

"Chat Noir, however, did randomly show up yesterday." She begrudgingly admitted, trying and failing to notice how Adrien suddenly lit up and looked eager to hear what she said. "I guess Ladybug told him about me? I'm actually not quite sure why he suddenly showed up."

She frowned, wondering about that now. She'd been too surprised by his miraculous appearance that she hadn't really questioned it too much.

"What was he like?" Adrien asked, cutting in before anyone else could ask anything.

She looked at him with wide eyes, a small blush dusting across her cheeks for a few seconds as she just stared at him in awed shock. "O-oh. He, he was pretty cool. Kind. Um."

He beams at her, pleased with her assessment. Alya, however, immediately leans over to capture Marinette's attention again. She has a million questions she wants to ask. "He showed up?! To see you? When Ladybug didn't? Girl, this is fate!"

"I would hardly call it fate, Aly—"

"So, what was he like? Did he talk about Ladybug? His life? His problems? Did he reveal any facts that might give away his secret identity?"

"Alya!" Nino chided half-heartedly and she smiled sheepishly back.

"What? You can't blame a girl for trying!"

Marinette groaned in response. She was already regretting mentioning anything but not saying anything would have been as good as lying… Why did it matter so much that she told the truth, anyway? Especially in this regard. Surely Chat would forgive her if she hid this from her classmates. Although, he hadn't really seemed all that bothered by the idea of her talking to them, about him…

"What did he say?!" Alya repeated, shaking her slightly and Marinette rolled her eyes.

"He talked about Ladybug for maybe two mintues and then asked if he could come by again."

**_"Girl."_ **

Marinette gave Alya a pained look. "Alya. Can we please just drop it at that?" She pleaded, hoping against all hope that they could leave the subject at that.

"No, we can _ **not**_ just drop it!" Alya repeated back, scandalized.

Nino, on the other hand, was leaning forward eagerly. "Wait. So let me get this straight. You spent maybe five minutes talking to one of the heroes of Paris and he immediately asked if he could come visit you again?"

With a groan of defeat, Marinette dropped her head in her hands. "It was more like two minutes and yes, he asked okay?! It doesn't mean anything, though! You guys are blowing this way out of proportion!"

"You are like… the hero whisperer." Alya murmured in awe.

Marinette's head shot up and she shot her best friend a narrow eyed look. "I am _not."_

"You so are!" Alya crowed, looking around and beaming. See this? This was her best friend. The hero whisperer. "Think about it, Mari. You spoke two minutes to Chat Noir and he's already inviting himself back to your place again!"

Marinette scoffed in response, crossing her arms defensively. "He did not invite himself back over, he was a perfect gentleman and asked if he could visit. And we barely talked. I think he just wants to get to know me better because he thinks I'm a friend of Ladybug."

"Oh~hh?" Alya gave her a sly look. "Think he's trying to weasle information out of you, maybe? Trying to find out Ladybug's secret identity?"

Adrien blanched, hating the idea that anyone could think him so low as to go against his lady's explicit wishes, and gazed worriedly at Marinette. The pigtailed girl merely scoffed, however, and rolled her eyes. "Oh please. As if. Chat Noir would never do something so low. He just wants to get to know Ladybug better, probably, learn aboout other sides of her he doesn't know."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because Ladybug trusts him implicitly and he wouldn't ever do anything to break that trust." Marinette said it with such conviction that several of her classmates gaped at her, not the least of which being Adrien.

"And how do you know that about Ladybug?" Alya immediately pounced on the new, juicy information.

Marinette groaned again. She was probably starting to sound like a zombie, given how many moans she'd let out today. Dropping her head in her hands again, she weakly defended. "How do you think?"

Alya started shaking her shoulders again. "Girl, I thought you said Ladybug didn't visit you yesterday?!"

"Oh, listen, there's the bell! Time to start class again!" Marinette replied brightly as it chimed, beaming at her best friend. Literally, saved by the bell. She knew this wasn't over by a long shot, but the bright smile on her face declared to all that she knew _exactly_ who had won this round. Adrien found it difficult to concentrate on his classes after so many revelations, so many different assets of his friend now showing clearly through. More than once, he would peer over his shoulder to stare at her curiously. Nino didn't comment on it, didn't even acknowledge it to Adrien besides occassionally elbowing him in the ribs to get him to turn around before the teacher noticed. However, he was far from indifferent as he appeared, texting Alya a barage of texts to make sure she was taking note of this. It seems that Ladybug and Chat Noir were good for their mutual, shy friend. Adrien had never been more interested and invested in what she had to say. Now Alya had double the reason to grill her with questions about her two favorite superheroes. Each break, however, had Marinette playing dumb or skillfully dodging questions, leaving her the quick victor and frustrating Alya to no end, to the point where she was contemplating strangling the answers out of the smug, pigtailed girl.

The minute the bell rang for lunch, Alya pounced on her again. "Okay, you can't escape now. Now you're going to spill all the details, everything you know!"

Marinette sighed in response. "Is that all I am to you now, Alya? A link to Ladybug and Chat Noir? Just another connection you can use to your benefit?"

Alya placed a hand over her heart, pretending to be mock hurt. "Oh that hurt, girl. Low blow. My heart, my poor heart."

Despite herself, Marinette found she couldn't help snickering. With a roll of her eyes, she finally relented. " _Fine._ Tell me what you want to know." When all of her classmates started talking over each other excitedly, she quickly held up her hand. "One question at a time, one _person_ at a time. And I get to eat lunch between questions."

Thus, question and answer time began. They started with her conversation with Chat Noir yesterday. Adrien couldn't help but note how incredibly vague she left it. She wouldn't give away the details, no matter the line of questioning or who asked the questions. She would merely repeat over and over again that she had a very quick chat with Chat and that they spoke briefly of Ladybug. She didn't mention soothing his insecurties over his partnership with Ladybug or his brief display of low key jealousy over her friendship with his lady love. Belatedly, he realized he should be thankful for this. If she went spouting off his every insecurity, someone could use it against him, unintentionally or as an akuma. It was amazing, watching her wade through questions and only answer what she felt wouldn't hurt him or Ladybug.

Those questions came next, their classmates quickly picking up that Marinette wouldn't give up any information on Chat Noir. The Ladybug questions took longer to answer, Marinette taking obvious care to word her answers properly and hesitating, as if deciding how much to give away. From her knowledge, it soon became apparent that Ladybug might have only visited her two times but Marinette had gained a lot of insight in those two visits. She was also trying to keep how long those visits lasted a secret, as if to hide how connected the two girls actually were.

"Fine, fine!" Alya growled in frustration. "You've obviously being more careful now about blurting out information. So fine. You win. We'll hold off on questions about the two heroes."

Marinette looked extremely grateful for the repreive—but she should have known it would come at a price. She was expecting the sudden gleam in Alya's eyes or the sly glance she sent Adrien before asking her next thoughts. "So, how about your thoughts on the heroes? You know, having met them in person several times."

"My thoughts on Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Marinette didn't notice the glance Alya sent at Adrien or the way he was suddenly sitting up, staring at her intently. Her brow furrowed in confusion before she slowly replied. "They're cool, I guess? I mean, they make a great team and they protect Paris. I'm grateful for that?"

"Do you have a lady crush on Ladybug?"

Marinette turned scarlet at her friend's bluntness. _**"No!"**_ The vehement of her reply surprised her classmates. "Oh gosh, no! Not at all! That would be— I couldn't— Alya, stop teasing me!"

She can't even explain how it felt, being asked by her best friend if she had a _crush_ on _herself_. There was a level of wrongness to it that she couldn't express, couldn't verbalise, but it made her vaguely sick. She wasn't a narcissist. She wasn't in love with herself or her alter ego. She thought Ladybug was brave and did amazing things and sometimes, just sometimes, she had a hard time recognizing those feats as her own, but mostly she was just proud of the good she did.

"Ladybug is amazing but the most I could ever be with her is friends." She said firmly, taking a deep breath to center herself. "That's it."

"And what about Chat Noir?"

Marinette sighed, feeling exhausted with playing this double life. It had only been three days since her life had been turned upside down by her own doing and she was already wishing that her powers came with the ability to turn back time so she could undo this whole mess. "What about him?"

"Celebrity crush, maybe?" Alya asked innocently. This time, Marinette _did_ notice the glance in Adrien's direction and two spots of color flushed her cheeks once more. _Way to be subtle, Alya._

"Err, no. I mean, he's nice and all but I don't… I don't really see him that way."

"Let me get this straight. A hot young man in leather that leaves almost nothing to the imagination climbs onto your balcony and crawls into your room and you don't feel a thing?"

Marinette's face was slowly inching towards scarlet again as she blushed. "He came to talk, Alya! It wasn't like he was trying to climb into my lap!"

Only Nino noticed Adrien nearly choke at those words.

"Ah-ha! So you admit it, you thought about it!" Alya looked way too smug with herself, glad to have gotten the upper hand of this conversation finally. It definitely helped that Marinette was doing her best impression of a tomato and Adrien had two light spots of pink on his cheeks, looking decidedly uncomfortable with the idea of some other guy crawling into his friend's lap.

She had no way of knowing, of course, that Adrien's train of thought was more along the lines of worrying if he suit was too much and if he often gave the wrong impression on others.

"No!" Despite her loud protest, Marinette's bright red face seemed to proclaim otherwise. She was breathing erratically, looking suddenly trapped and ready to bail at any minute. "Look, of course if a hot guy is running around in leather, I'm going to notice! What sane person wouldn't? But Chat Noir is a superhero and I'm— I'm— _Marinette_ , okay?! Nothing's going to happen and it's madness to even entertain the idea! Besides, Chat Noir isn't exactly my… _type."_

The last part is said quietly, with a small emphasis as she eyes Alya, pleading with her to let her off easy this time. With a puff of air, her bestie finally relents and rolls her eyes. "Fine, fine. No making out with superheroes in your future, I got it. You'll just have to be content with being the superhero whisperer _without_ benefits."

Marinette had been finally calming down before the last two words turned her into a gibbering mess. She stood abruptly, abandoning her half eaten sandwich to escape to the bathroom, not even hiding the fact that she was clearly running away from this conversation. Alya cackled lightly until Nino elbowed her lightly in her side. She side eyed him for a moment, watching him minutely shake his head at her, before she rolled her eyes and stood as well. Heaving a sigh, she stalked after Marinette to apologizing her for teasing her too much. She'd just wanted to stir things up a bit, make Adrien jealous. She _had_ pushed it a little too far, though, so it was only fair that she apologize and try to make it up to Marinette.

Meanwhile, Nino naturally stayed behind, watching Adrien as he contemplated something with glazed eyes and slightly flushed cheeks. He shook his head and looked at Nino, as if he expected him to hold the answers he desperately needed all of a sudden. "Do most people think of Chat Noir that way?"

Nino raised both eyebrows at that. Not what he was expecting, to be honest. "What way?"

"You know, like—" He flailed his hands uselessly for a moment before his cheeks heated up again and he blurted out what was on his mind. "Leather!"

Looks like he was picking up traits from Marinette. That was a good sign, right? Mimickry being the highest form of flattery and all that. Nino grinned and slung an arm around his buddy. "I mean, well, yeah. It's kind of his signature, you know? But you don't have to worry, Alya was just teasing. Chat Noir isn't going to be seducing Marinette any time soon." Adrien's cheeks blossomed with color again and he nodded his head jerkily, causing Nino to laugh. "Let's head back to class. The girls will join us when they're ready. Or once Marinette's calmed down, at least."

The rest of the day was pure torture for Adrien. Even when Marinette came back, she still looked very embarrassed and kept her head down in the majority of their classes. She was quieter than usual. It wasn't until she was like this that he realized that while his friend and classmate wasn't exactly loud, she was usually pretty active during discussions. He wasn't sure how to feel about her sudden silence and her lack of confidence. It didn't help that he didn't know why she was embarrassed. Was it the idea that someone thought of pairing her up with either Ladybug or Chat Noir? Weren't most people flattered at the idea of being in a secret relationship with a superhero? Or was it the fact that Alya had implied she had one sided feelings for one of them? It could be pretty embarrassing to have your crush suddenly aired for the whole world. He could understand if that was that.

His stomach twisted uneasily. For some reason, though, he didn't think it was either of those reasons. What if… What if he made her uncomfortable as Chat Noir? She used to be a fan of his but what if meeting him and having him so close ruined that impression? Not to mention, he'd gotten a bit in her personal space yesterday! He'd only meant to tease her but what if he'd accidenatlly ruined her impression of him? Or maybe he put too much pressure on her! She was already dealing with having to sort Ladybug's problems and now he was going to add his own life to the mix. Maybe she was too embarrassed to tell him that she couldn't handle it, to tell him to get lost, to take a hike. Or maybe, she was just too embarrassed to be seen with him? It was one thing to be saved by a hero and quite another to constantly be in the company of—how had Alya put it? _A hot guy in leather._ He had to get to the bottom of this. Not knowing was killing him. He resolved that after school, he would approach her and find out what was wrong, what was bugging her.

He had no way of knowing it was the fact that _he, Adrien,_ had been present during her confession about Chat Noir that had left her so embarrassed and mortified. Of _course_ she noticed that her kitty wore a very thick but still skin tight leather outfit. She wasn't blind or oblivious. And had he ever paid her, Marinette, any compliments in said outfit, she would probably be very flattered. Well, maybe, so long as they weren't the flirty puns he made at Ladybug. Nobody liked a _copycat_ (ha! she could pun too) after all. But that didn't mean she wanted to date Chat Noir or that she was interested in him in _that way!_ What if Adrien got the wrong impression about her? Ohhh, she shouldn't have said anything after all! Curse her blubber mouth!

So wrapped up in their own angst, neither teen noticed when the other would glance at them pitifully. Marinette would bite her lip, brows furrowed, as she stared at the back of Adrien's head, only to duck her own whenever he lifted his head to look up. Adrien, on the other hand, would occasionally sneak worried glances at the quiet girl behind him, looking like he wanted to say something but unsure of how to phrase it. The rest of the day left Alya and Nino and a few of their classmates very entertained as they watched these minute interactions.

When the bell rang, signaling the end of school, none of the other students could compare to how fast Adrien got out of the classroom. Marinette would have made a solid second place, if Alya hadn't stopped her one more time to try to question her about Chat Noir and Ladybug again. Telling her that she didn't have any more information to share, that she wasn't even sure if they'd come over again much less _when_ , Marinette darted around her and headed home. She greeted her parents as she ran into the bakery, zooming up the stairs and slamming the trap door behind her in her panic. She dropped her school bag by her computer and took a minute to catch her breath. She was just heading to the place where she carefully hid her sketchbook, intent on being Ladybug for a bit and sketching designs to get her mind off the disasters of today, when a thud alerted her to someone on her balcony. That could only be one person and she felt a dawning horror as a familiar figure crouched over her skylight. Gulping, Marinette turned and made her way to let her feline friend inside.

Chat Noir dropped inside, his hand wringing the moment he was in her room. He looked around frantically for a moment and Marinette's brows furrowed in concern. It looked like he was really bothered by something. Setting her own problems aside, she reached out and gently put her hand on her partner's shoulder. "Chat? What's wrong?"

He whirled on her, gripping her by the shoulders. Her mouth opened in a small 'oh' of surprise, eyes widening. There was very real panic in his eyes as he announced why he was here. "I'm not just some alley cat trying to seduce you with a bit a leather!"

Marinette's mouth fell open in blatant shock and she blinked at him, eyes still blown wide. Heart hammering in his chest, Chat was sure he screwed up, that he had just made things one hundred times worse. He opened his mouth, intent on trying to repair things again, when he felt her start to shake. Seconds later, she burst out laughing, unable to contain herself. She curled in on herself a little, holding her stomach as she shook with laughter and slowly, he let go, releasing her. He was more confused than hurt by this behavior. He was seriously trying to apologize here, why was she laughing like that? She wiped her eyes, chuckling as she grinned up at him.

"Oh Chat. Whatever gave you the idea that I would think otherwise?"

He flushed under his suit, suddenly feeling very embarrassed. "I just didn't want you to feel uncomfortable around me, Princess." He told her.

Feeling a burst of affection for the feline, she reached up to ruffle his hair. Smiling, she replied, "You needn't feel so _moo_ ved on my behalf, Chat Noir."

His eyes widened and she grinned wider, continuing her pun assault. "I'm not _cowed_ by your outfit, I promise."

A smile broke out across his face and he leaned forward a little. "And what about my _cat_ -itude?"

"I'm _feline bovine_ with that as well."

He snorted and she giggled, both of them soon laughing lightly as the intial awkward atmosphere cleared around them. Pulling her hand down from ruffling his hair, he gave her a light kiss on the back of her knuckles. "Well, glad you're _feline_ so comfortable around me, Princess." And there was real relief in his voice that made her heart swell. What a sweet partner she had, worried about making her uncomfortable. She forgot earlier that she and Chat went to the same school. No doubt he had overheard the embarrassing conversation with Alya at lunch, the same as Adrien and the rest of the class. _She_ wasn't supposed to know that, though, and belatedly it occurred to her that she should ask why he felt how he did. Gently extracting her hand, she gestured to the chair in front of her desktop.

"So, Chat Noir, do you want to tell me what brought around your sudden existential crisis?" He started, eyes wide and looking very guilty all of a sudden, so she took pity on him, turning her back to get her homework out. "I don't think I've heard any mention of you being conscious of your outfit before. Did Ladybug say something?"

"Err…" He scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well, no."

She raised from her bag, glancing at him, trying to keep her face in a look of surprise. "No? Then, did someone else say something to you? Do you have another favorite civilian you like to go to with your problems?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that. No, someone happened to… _mention it_ , at my school."

She forced her eyes to widen, mimicking even further surprise. "You were talking about your alter ego as your civilian self?"

He winced and her expression softened. Setting aside the last of her work, she walked over to him, kneeling in front of him. She lightly placed her hand on his clawed glove. "Hey. Hey… Chat, you can talk to me, okay? You can tell me anything. I won't judge."

He looked down into those caring blue eyes, into her encouraging smile, and he threw caution to the wind. "I'm in your class at school!" He blurted out.

Her eyes widened, Marinette not expecting him to be so blunt and honest to _her_ , and she felt her flushing in embarrassment as the full implication of what he said hit her. He hadn't just heard her conversation about his suit, he'd heard her say she thought he was _hot_ and that she didn't think he was her _type_. Oh, how embarrassing! Oh, why hadn't she thought of that earlier? He didn't give her much time to panic, either, wrapping her hands in his gloved claws. She was forced to meet his eyes again, trying her best to hide her very obvious embarrassment and failing. Not only had she made a fool of herself in front of _Adrien_ , she'd done so in front of _Chat Noir_ as well!

"Marinette. Marinette…" He bit his lip and shook his head. "This doesn't have to change anything, alright? I just, I wanted you to know."

She flushed harder, ducking her head and averting her gaze. "Why? Why did you want to tell me?"

Adrien flinched, hating how small and scared she suddenly sounded. "I didn't want to lie to you. You're, you're doing so much for Ladybug, for me, that it didn't seem fair."

She groaned and her head drooped. "Did, did you hear everything, earlier…?"

Slowly, he nodded, his cheeks flushing slightly. "Err, yeah."

"Oh, gosh, I can't go to school tomorrow! I can never show my face there again!" She moaned in mortification.

"No! No. It's alright, it's _purrfectly_ alright! I was actually really, really impressed with you today?"

She peeked up at him, through her lashes, her face still covered in a deep blush. "You, you were?"

He did his best to give her an encouraging smile, nodding eagerly. "Yeah! I was! And so would Ladybug, if she'd been there! You handled their questions really, really well and you, well, you seemed to know just how much to say. You didn't over share at all, not even a little bit."

She bit her lip but did her best to meet his gaze, which warmed his heart. His brave but incredibly shy classmate was trying to meet him on equal ground. "I _was_ trying, I was doing my best… I didn't want to—to not give anything away. I don't want to put you _or_ Ladybug in a bad spot."

He smiled at her, pleased. She was such a kind, considerate girl. Really, she was doing so much for them. He would definitely have to find a way to pay her back for all this. "Don't worry. Both Ladybug and I have complete confidence in you!"

While Ladybug might not be sure that sharing so much with a civilian was a good idea, she had agreed with him that she didn't believe Marinette would betray their secrets. Marinette seemed gratified to hear that and he was pleased to see a touch of her blush in regards to those words. She was touched by what he said! He didn't know why but that made him feel warm inside. Clearing her throat to hide her embarrassment, Marinette gently tugged her hands out of his and stood up. For a moment, he felt lost without the anchor of her touch but he let her go, hands falling limply in his lap. Her face still flushed with embarrassment, Marinette turned away from him slightly.

"S-so! Uh, while this is all very flattering, I don't think you came all this way just to apologize to me for showing up in leather. I mean, that's not even something you can control, right? So why are you here, really?"

When silence followed her remark, Marinette's brows furrowed in confusion. Turning back to Chat, she was surprised to see his cheeks flushed and him rubbing the back of his neck. "Err…"

No.

No way.

Had he seriously…?

Just for that…?

She couldn't believe it!

Just as she opened her mouth to say something, his ears twitched. She paused, hearing a split second after him what had him on full alert. She was across the room in an instant, pulling him up by his wrist and dragging him to the bathroom, shoving him inside. "Hide! Don't make a sound, okay?" Then she was closing the bathroom door after him before he could even agree. She turned around, intending to dart across the room and— well, she most likely would have face planted long before she got to the desk in an attempt to fool her parents into thinking she was just doing homework. None of that happened, however, as she turned around just as her father was opening the trap door. She plastered on her biggest, most reassuring smile ever, which just made her look a tiny bit awkward and very nervous.

"Papa!"

Tom frowned slightly at his daughter before glancing at the door behind her. When she subtly stepped further in front of it, he bit back a smile. Ah, so that's how it was. He held out a plate full of fresh crossant sandwiches for her to take. "I thought you might be hungry." And her kwami as well, though he didn't say that. His eyes darted to her purse, where she usually seemed to keep her, and her relief was obvious. She walked across the room, nodding slowly. "Yes, yes we— _I_ am. Thanks for bringing up so much food, Papa! I really appreciate it."

She would have to set aside a sandwich for Tikki, for after Chat Noir left, but until then she'd share with her partner. Accepting the plate, she carefully set it aside on the desk and then knelt beside the trap door, where her father was still waiting expectantly. He beckoned her closer and she leaned down. Leaning forward, he whispered in her ear for a minute, Marinette turning bright red and sputtering in protest that it wasn't like that while he chuckled and began heading down stairs again. Still bright red, she stiffly stood up, wrapped a sandwich in a napkin and put in the the drawer of her desk. Then, still stiff, she walked over to the bathroom door and hesitantly knocked on it. "Chat Noir?" She called softly.

After a moment, the black clad superhero opened the door. Taking in her still red face and stiff posture, he smirked at her. "So, what exactly did your father say?"

"No-nothing! He brought croissant sandwiches, though, would you like one? They're freshly baked and have ham and cheese and tomato and lettuce and—" She quickly changed the subject after her denial, quickly listing off how the sandwiches were made. He snickered softly, not about to call her on her lie. His hearing meant he'd been more than able to hear what was said between the two of them. However, he was more interested in trying one of their sandwiches. The last time he was here as Adrien, he'd only had a quiche, which had been heavenly but had given him little insight into the normal flavors of the bakery. And those croissants had smelled _amazing_.

Things were easier between them after they ate. They spoke a little between eating the sandwiches, the awkward air dispelling naturally. After the meal, the two continued chatting, easily falling into banter and light hearted talk. A quick glance at the clock an hour later, however, revealed he really should be going. It took several minutes for them to part ways, each having just one more thing to say to the other. As Chat finally pulled himself out of the skylight, he leaned his head back down to grin at Marinette with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"Well as _amewsing_ as this has been, I really must be going. And Marinette?"

"Yes, Chat?" She replied with an easy smile.

"Your dad is right, by the way." His smile grew at her confused look. "You really should be careful about letting _boys_ into your room without permission. I hear some of them can be real _animals_."

"Ohhhhh! You— you—!" She shouted and he laughed, pulling back and bounding away before she could think of a witty remark to sling back at him. Her embarrassed blush was quickly becoming one of his favorite things.

That evening, Marinette sat on her balcony, watching the sunset and absently sketching another design for her father. She looked out, getting caught up in the gorgeous hues of the sky, not noticing when her father came out to check on her. He looked over her shoulder and hummed appreciatively, startling his daughter.

"It was a bit of a cross between those two," he stated as she scrambled to pick up the colored pencils she'd accidentally flung everywhere.

"What?" She blinked at him, owl eyed.

"I was closer to this size," he pointed to the second image, which was closer to his current size, if a little more muscularly defined. "And I didn't have gauntlets but I did have bracers."

"Bracers?" Marinette repeated, looking confused for a moment.

He nodded, smiling slightly. "Yes. Bracers. Do you remember what those were for?"

"Gauntlets were for knights… Bracers were for…" Her eyes widened and she suddenly leaned over in her chair to look up at him. "Archers! You were an archer?!"

Chuckling, he beamed at his quick witted daughter. "Yes, I was."

"Wow…" She stared off into the distance for a minute, no doubt visualizing this, before she grabbed a graphite pencil. "Tell me more!"

"It wasn't just the top that was fuzzy, although that was a good guess. My arms were covered in fuzzy sleezes all the way down to my elbow. I had a small collar of black fuzz around my neck but the rest was yellow. Around my stomach, much like a belt, I had a ring of black with just a small touch of yellow below it. The pants were very form fitting and black, with tall white boots."

"White boots?" Marinette repeated, looking up with some confusion. Her father gave her a small smile.

"Usually, the back end of a bumblebee is white or a very pale yellow."

She nodded, eyes brighten slightly as she understood the design. "How did you get your bow? Was it strapped to your back? And the arrows?"

Tom laughed and shook his head, the sound making his daughter smile. "I had a traditional kyudo bow, called a yumi. It was nearly the same length as you are. I did not have it when I transformed. Instead, it was made of the wind and would take it's form from passing leaves blown about, while the arrows were made of pollen, hardened honey, molasses, nectar, grass strands, smoke."

She stared up at him with wide eyes, impressed by the range of his abilities. "You, you could make all that?"

He laughed. "Not at first, no, but after a couple of years my abilities improved. When I first made the bow, I could shoot it straight and true but only was capable of making three to five shots before my time was up. Back then, my bow was made of wind but came apart much easier and my arrows were only made of pollen and smoke."

"Were those kinds of arrows really effective?"

He laughed again. "I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, Marinette. You must remember, there was no Ladybug in the time of your mother and I. Whatever we did, it would be permanent. I chose my aim carefully and my abilities with even more care. I had the strength to fight them in hand to hand combat as well but I worried that one or both parties might get hurt that way. I couldn't risk it."

Marinette nodded, relaxing. This was all done with care, while knowing that what was done couldn't be undone. It was a different way of fighting, a different partnership, than what her and Chat Noir were used to.

"Can you tell me more?"

With a twinkle in his eye, Tom nodded slowly. "Only if you tell me about the boy hiding in your bathroom earlier and how you're handling things at school."

Marinette flushed and clutched her sketchbook closer to her chest but nodded, trying to will her blush away. "Well… It started with what happened at school today."

And so, Marinette slowly began her tale of her day at school, relaxing inch by inch until she was absently working on the sketch of her father again. She told him everything, even all the embarrassing parts, finally ending with her conversation with Chat Noir in her room. "And when he left, he repeated back what you said to me earlier! The nerve! He heard everything and just, just pretended not to!"

"Hmm." Tom hummed, pleased, watching over the progress his daughter was making on his outfit. "It seems like you had an eventful day. And you say that Chat Noir definitely goes to school with you?"

She made a hard line on the sketch, frowning. "Yes. This is the second time he's confirmed it, not that he knows it was me both times."

"Do you have any idea who he is?"

"No!" Marinette cried out, horrified at the idea. She looked up at her father, aghast. "Papa! Maybe it was okay for you and Maman to know each others identities because you didn't have to fight a supervillain but it would be terrible if one of us got caught and was used against the other!"

"Who's to say that won't happen anyway?" He asked quietly.

Marinette opened her mouth and then quietly closed it, looking down. "I don't know…"

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Marinette, when I fought along side your mother, there were plenty of dangers. Knowing who she was wasn't one of them but that doesn't mean there weren't people who wouldn't have tried to take advantage of us knowing. It's fine if you don't want to know but don't think it's wrong or that it will change anything if _you_ do find out."

"It will change things. It'll change everything." Marinette pouted, tracing the sketch with her finger. It smeared the colors a tiny bit but not noticably.

"Perhaps. Things will always change but perhaps they won't change as much as you think. If any of the boys in your class turn out to be your best friend in a mask, will you stop wanting to talk to them?"

"No."

"If it turns out one of the boys in your class has had your back this whole time, has fought along side you and protected you and helped you in a very tough situation, will that change how you feel about Chat Noir?"

"No."

"So, then, what exactly will change? If not your feelings, if not your ability to communicate, which aspect of your partnership are you afraid is going to change?"

Marinette frowned, brows furrowing, and she felt tears well up in her eyes. "What if, what if he doesn't want to be friends with me still?"

"Does Chat Noir seem like the type of person to look down on others to you?"

_**"No!"**_ Marinette was horrified at the idea that anyone would even _think_ that about Chat Noir.

"Do you think he would treat you any differently because he knows you go to the same school? That you're in the same class?"

"I—I don't know."

Tom hugged her a little tighter. "Change can be very scary but it isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's your choice, the choice you two will make together. From what you've told us, Chat Noir would never go against your wishes and try to force a reveal. He respects you and your boundaries. If you don't want to know, things don't have to change. If you ever change your mind, well, then things _will_ change but not necessarily in a bad way. And if they do, if you can't keep your partnership after finding out, then your mother and I will be here for you."

"Thank you, Papa." Marinette sighed, leaning into his soothing comfort.

They sat side by side, quietly, for a few minutes before he adjusted his hold on her to point at her sketchbook. "Shall I tell you more about my appearance?"

Marinette smiled brightly and beamed up at her Papa. "I would love that!"

That night, stories were set aside to help her better understand the type of hero her father had been. Not just in appearance but in character as well. He did his best to describe the bow he used to her, how it looked and acted, how he could summon it from the air. He described gathering pollen and smoke on the wind currents to create his arrows. Smoke, he explained, was more like the very smog in the air which he shaped to his will. He didn't talk about any of the people he fought or even what types of fights he was in, what crime he fought. Instead, he explained how he used his powers both in long distance combat and close combat. The suit shielded him from a lot of damage when he was in close contact fights, deflecting or neutralizing most punches and kicks. How he used to shoot hands and feet to trip criminals up and stop them from attacking with weapons or throw off their aim. Marinette fell asleep to stories of her father in his youth, her imagination turning into dreams of him fighting crime and filling in the blanks he wasn't yet ready to tell her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that these powers are falling outside the norm of what's in the show but I'm already diverging from canon. I also want to highlight that her parents are very different heroes than Marinette and Adrien, that they fought in a different way and that the powers aren't necessarily the same from hero to hero, just like their outfits change. This is mainly because the Bee hero hasn't been shown yet so I'm sorry in advance if I'm lacking in the same creativity as the show. And yes, I know the main weapon is supposed to be the trompo but again, I'm taking creative liberties.

**Author's Note:**

> This can be taken as a one shot or a series of drabbles in regards to my head canon that Tom and Sabine would have made awesome miraculous holders. I also like the idea that Tom is the Bee and Sabine is the Fox. Fox/Bee might very well be my new OTP.
> 
> I've read a lot of fanfictions about Adrien's parents both being holders, how this makes him special, but I wanted to turn that idea on it's head. I love the idea of _Marinette's parents_ being former holders and she has no idea that she's taking over the family business--the one of saving people.


End file.
